COVID-19 vaccine in 5–11-year-old children, with particular focused on adverse events following immunization Review article
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Abstract
On December 10th, 2021, the Polish Minister of Health announced the beginning of vaccinations against COVID-19 in children aged 5–11. The introduction of vaccination against COVID-19 in people over 18 years of age and then 12 years of age has resulted that children aged 5–11 are the population with the highest incidence. Additionally, even after asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, children and adolescents are at risk of childhood multisystemic inflammatory syndrome. Vaccinations are the best form of prophylaxis. The vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty) in a pediatric dose of 10 μg/dose (0.2 ml) is the only one approved for vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years of age. The vaccination schedule consists of two doses of the vaccine given 3 weeks apart. The estimated efficacy of this vaccine from 7 days after the second dose was 90.7%. The vaccine was well tolerated, and adverse events were mild and temporary. Local reactions (pain and redness at the injection site and swelling) were common and were mostly mild to moderate. The systemic events were mainly fatigue, headache, myalgia, chills, pyrexia, and arthralgia and were more frequent after the second dose. Drugs that are recommended in case of pain or fever are paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Currently, paracetamol is the drug of first choice. In conclusion serious adverse reactions to the vaccine against COVID-19 are rare, but patients should always be informed and prepared for. Each doctor is obliged to follow all new information and update recommendations.
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