NONTHABURI, Sept 7 (TNA) – The Ministry of Public Health signed an amended contract with Pfizer to acquire COVID-19 vaccine for children aged from six months to five years and expected delivery to start next month.
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the contract with Deborah Seifert, Pfizer’s manager for Thailand and Indochina at the ministry. The contractual amendment responded to a cabinet resolution to procure COVID-19 vaccine for administration with children of the young age range and covered 3 million doses.
Prof Dr Kulkanya Chokephaibulkit from the Department of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital under Mahidol University, said the young children needed the vaccination to prevent severe symptoms and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) which could happen from the time of full COVID-19 recovery to 2-6 weeks after infection. The severe illnesses were blamed on the strong responses of antibodies to the virus.
Statistics show that MIS-C happens to one in every 10,000 infected children and their symptoms were high fever, seizure and severe diarrhea. MIS-C could be fatal in young children even if they were under the care of experienced doctors, Prof Dr Kulkanya said. (TNA)
