Doctors have reported 364 cases where patients have shown side effects to the COVID-19 vaccination in Switzerland which accounts for 0.05 percent of patients.
The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) reported the cases in Switzerland where 364 people showed some side effects of varying severity since vaccinations started, according to a report on 26th February.
Vaccination in Switzerland began on 4th January 2021.
In 199 of them, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was administered while the remaining 154 were associated with the Moderna vaccine.
According to the report by Swissmedic, women accounted for 67 percent of the affected patients, men 28.3 percent and no gender was specified in 4.7 percent of the cases.
About 74 percent of the patients had less serious reactions such as headaches, fever and shivering or minor symptoms such as redness, itching, pain or swelling of the skin where the injection had been administered.
However, 95 people, about 26 percent, showed severe reactions to the vaccine requiring treatment in hospital or showing reactions classified as medically significant.
Some of the common symptoms patients developed were shingles (eight), fever (eight), headaches (seven), COVID-19 (nine) and allergic reactions.
In 16 cases the patients, whose average age was 86, died at differing times after receiving the vaccine.
However, most of them suffered from pre-existing illnesses and their deaths were associated with cardiovascular problems, diseases of the lungs and airways or infections, according to the statement by Swissmedic.
It added: “Despite a temporal association, there is no concrete evidence that the vaccination was the cause of death.”
Following the statistics of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), Swissmedic’s 364 severe case findings correspond to 0.05 percent of the total vaccinations, resulting in one side effect for every 2000 vaccinations, on average.
Swissmedic, which counts with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries, continue to recommend Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s approved vaccines to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The FOPH reported 751,009 vaccines were administered on Wednesday, February 24th.
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Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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