NPRA probing 18 cases of adverse vaccination effects, including 2 deaths

 

A letter from Kajang prison director Mohd Andri Ridzwan, which has gone viral, says the two deaths were reported among the 2,782 prisoners vaccinated. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: The National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) is probing 18 cases of adverse vaccination effects in Kajang prison, which also involve the deaths of two prisoners who were recently vaccinated against Covid-19.

Commenting on a social media post which has gone viral, NPRA director Dr Roshayati Mohamad Sani confirmed receiving the report on the 18 cases from the Kajang prison authorities.

“The adverse effects suffered following immunisation (AEFIs) reports, which were classified as serious, include deaths and are being investigated,” she said in a statement today.

The viral letter from Kajang prison director Mohd Andri Ridzwan to the Hulu Langat district health office stated that two deaths were reported among the 2,782 prisoners vaccinated.

The deaths happened within one month of the duo receiving their jabs.

In his letter, Andri said 15 cases received the Pfizer jab while three were given the single-dose Cansino vaccine. The two who died had been given the Pfizer vaccine.

Aside from the two deaths, the others developed heart inflammation, paralysis and lung infection after vaccination.

He had written to the district health office to get its views on the need to give prisoners booster doses. The Kajang prison vaccination programme was held from Sept 23 to Oct 22, involving 4,185 prisoners.

Roshayati said the health ministry’s Covid-19 vaccine pharmacovigilance committee will be determining the “causality” or link between the vaccines and the adverse effects reported.

All adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccines, irrespective of whether they are serious or not, must be reported to the NPRA, according to the AEFI reporting manual for healthcare workers.

On Nov 23, deputy health minister Aaron Ago Dagang said the ministry had received 23,163 reports of AEFIs from February to Nov 20, 2021, out of the 51,842,386 doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, CanSino and Sinopharm vaccines administered in that period.

Dagang also told the Dewan Rakyat that though 535 individuals who were fully vaccinated had died, post mortems showed that their deaths were not directly linked to the vaccines.

In September, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said there were no deaths in Malaysia linked to the Covid-19 vaccine. - FMT