JEDDAH: Dr. Sami Badawood, director of the Department of Health Affairs in Jeddah, refuted on Saturday a rumor that officials have abandoned their swine flu vaccination campaign that began in schools across the Kingdom on Dec. 19.
According to the hearsay, the vaccine is administered in two doses and that health officials have abandoned the program before the second doses could be administered. Badawood clarified to Arab News that the vaccine is a single-dose jab and that parents are still being sent permission slips to administer the vaccine to their children.
“It is a single dose vaccine that is being administered,” he said, adding that the national campaign has been the ministry’s answer to the “weak response” by parents. “We have now launched a nationwide campaign in addition to our regular school campaign to allow those who want the vaccination to have access to it.”
Badawood also pointed out that the vaccination is available to anyone free of charge at the country’s public primary health care centers. Health Ministry spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani said earlier this month that parents fear adverse side effects from the vaccine; a concern that local and international health officials say is unwarranted.
Al-Mirghalani also indicated that the side effects are no different than those occurring from other childhood vaccines.
The campaign began at the Kingdom’s international schools on Jan. 3.
Both the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) and World Health Organization have maintained that the vaccine is completely safe with only minor side effects such as headaches, muscle soreness, and redness around the area where the shot is administered.
The only health warning related to the vaccine has been directed at people who are allergic to poultry products because the vaccine is cultivated from eggs.
The SFDA claims to have received 30 complaints of side effects upon receiving the vaccine but said none of them were considered serious and should provide no solid reason for anyone to doubt the safety of the vaccine.
