Health experts have said that children aged between 5-11 should get vaccinated against COVID-19. (Photo: vietnamnet.vn)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – COVID-19 vaccines cause no negative impact on
or future fertility, so children should be vaccinated
to reduce their risk of severe disease and hospitalisation, according to
experts.
In reply to parent concerns about the possibility of the vaccine
impairing their child’s , Dr Tran Minh Dien, director of the
Vietnam National Children’s Hospital, said have no side
effects on the development of puberty or future fertility of children aged
between 5 and 11.
Dien explained that the essence of this vaccine is that messenger RNA
components, when entering the cell, create proteins and coordinate with
some immune cells to produce antibodies.
The messenger RNAs do not enter the human genetic cell reservoir.
He added that the immediate side effects in children after getting
COVID-19 vaccines would be the same as in adults, so there’s nothing to worry
about.
Dien said parents should give their consent for their children to be
vaccinated. The World Health Organization encourages countries to
administer vaccinations to lower age groups when vaccines for children under
five years old become available.
“This is a vulnerable group as children’s immune system is not yet complete
while the new strain has remained unknown in the future,” he said.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tien, deputy director of HCM City’s Children’s Hospital, said
the Omicron variant spread fast, especially among unvaccinated children.
Tien said parents should get their kids vaccinated as they will get immunity
and be less likely to get infected or a severe disease.
Even though they had a normal health record, the hospital has received
some severely-ill children who were not vaccinated. Moreover, he said that
COVID-19 vaccines could help reduce post-COVID-19 syndrome in children.
According to research from the UK, the US and some European countries, between
6 and 15 per cent of children have symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndromes such as
memory loss, forgetfulness, sleep disorders and depression.
It should be noted that multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is
common. This syndrome is very severe and requires hospitalisation. These
syndromes rarely occur when children get vaccinated.
Regarding side effects after vaccination, Tien said parents need to
monitor some common child reactions after injection, such as swelling and pain
at the injection site, fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, or fever.
He added that myocarditis did not appear in the age group of 5-11.
With a group of children with underlying diseases, Tien noted that the policy
of the health sector is to give injections to children at medical facilities.
Parents must declare information about their children’s medical history to the
school and medical facilities so that they will be vaccinated at the hospital.
Phan Trong Lan, director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive
Medicine, said children aged 5-11 will have fewer and milder symptoms than
adults if they are vaccinated.
Early vaccination not only helps protect children but also can help protect
family members, including those who are not eligible for vaccination or can
become seriously ill if infected, he said.
Dr Nguyen Thanh Hung, director of HCM City’s Children’s Hospital No 1,
emphasised that vaccination against COVID-19 for children aged 5-11
was essential to creating a safe community.
“We have been in contact with many infected children who have recovered from
the disease and still have many long-term psychophysiological problems,” he
said, adding that the hospital still receives calls from parents asking about
children getting COVID-19.
Dang Thanh Huyen, deputy head of the National Expanded Immunization Office,
said that under the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the
guidance of the Ministry of Health, asymptomatic COVID-19 cases can be
vaccinated when the quarantine period is over.
“However, families can give their children time to recover from and
have a good response to the vaccine,” she said.
According to Dien, getting COVID-19 is the natural introduction of the virus
into the body and the body will react to create antibodies to fight the virus
over a certain period of time.
“The longest time for storing antibodies against the virus is 6-9 months.
Therefore, parents can wait for more than three months to get children who
have recovered from COVID-19 vaccinated to supplement the antibody levels
in their body,” he said.
Health experts said after vaccination, children need to stay at the vaccination
site for at least 30 minutes to monitor, detect and promptly handle serious
reactions.
Parents need to continuously monitor children’s health within 28 days after
vaccination, especially the first 48 hours.
On March 28, Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son signed a document to request the
departments of Health of the provinces and cities to coordinate with the
departments of Education and Training to review and make a list of
children from Grade 1 to 6 to get vaccinated.
Vietnam will start COVID-19 inoculations of children aged 5-11 years from the
beginning of April, using 13.7 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines
(for children from 6) donated by the Australian Government./.
Source: VietnamPlus
