Vaccination for kids aged 12-17

THE South African Health Products Authority has approved the Pfizer vaccine roll-out for children between the ages of 12 and 17, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said yesterday.

Children will not need to obtain the consent of parents to be vaccinated, in line with the Children’s Act, providing that those aged 12 to 17 could give their own consent for any medical treatment, according to acting director-general Nicholas Crisp.

Speaking during a virtual media briefing on the government’s efforts in the fight against Covid-19, Phaahla said the inoculation of this age group would take effect from October 20.

According to him, the decision was taken following the recommendations from the ministerial advisory committee on Covid-19 vaccines, supported by health MECS during the statutory health council meeting on Tuesday.

“This service will start on October 20 to allow the necessary preparation on the electronic vaccination data registration system and also other logistical preparations.

“We believe that this will come in handy as the schools start their exam and some are already advanced towards concluding their academic year and are starting to prepare for the next academic year of 2022,” he said.

Phaahla said that according to the advisory committee, only one dose of a Pfizer vaccine should be administered to children for now.

The administering of one shot followed advice from the committee .

This is regarding information suggesting that “in a few cases all over the world there had been some short-lived cases of transient myocarditis after the second dose”, the health minister said.

Phaahla added: “This rare finding of this adverse effect is a slight inflammation of the heart muscle which has been noticed in a few cases.

“It been has advised that while this has been monitored all over the world, at this stage there has been no indication that the first dose has any serious side-effects. So, for now it will be just one dose while the studies are continuing, which it’s believed will offer significant protection.”

He said the timing of the second dose would be informed by further information into rarely observed side-effects.

He emphasised that even where the side-effect had been noticed it had posed no permanent risks.

“We are just taking precaution in this case.”

The children’s inoculation will take place at the time when the trial of regulator-approved Coronavac vaccine on children under the age of 18 was under way in the country.

The phase III paediatric Covid-19 vaccine study, led by Sinovac and Numolux Group (Pty) Ltd of Pretoria, was launched last month at the Sefako Makgatho Health Science University’s Mecru Clinical Research Unit.