Health experts have said that children aged between 5-11 should get vaccinated against COVID-19. (Photo: vietnamnet.vn) In reply to parent concerns about the possibility of the vaccineimpairing their child’s future fertility, Dr Tran Minh Dien, director of theVietnam National Children’s Hospital, said COVID-19 vaccines have no sideeffects on the development of puberty or future fertility of children agedbetween 5 and 11.
Dien explained that the essence of this vaccine is that messenger RNAcomponents, when entering the cell, create proteins and coordinate withsome 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 gettingCOVID-19 vaccines would be the same as in adults, so there’s nothing to worryabout.
Dien said parents should give their consent for their children to bevaccinated. The World Health Organization encourages countries toadminister vaccinations to lower age groups when vaccines for children underfive years old become available.
“This is a vulnerable group as children’s immune system is not yet completewhile the new strain has remained unknown in the future,” he said.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tien, deputy director of HCM City’s Children’s Hospital, saidthe Omicron variant spread fast, especially among unvaccinated children.
Tien said parents should get their kids vaccinated as they will get immunityand be less likely to get infected or a severe disease.
Even though they had a normal health record, the hospital has receivedsome severely-ill children who were not vaccinated. Moreover, he said thatCOVID-19 vaccines could help reduce post-COVID-19 syndrome in children.
According to research from the UK, the US and some European countries, between6 and 15 per cent of children have symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndromes such asmemory loss, forgetfulness, sleep disorders and depression.
It should be noted that multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children iscommon. This syndrome is very severe and requires hospitalisation. Thesesyndromes rarely occur when children get vaccinated.
Regarding side effects after vaccination, Tien said parents need tomonitor some common child reactions after injection, such as swelling and painat 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 policyof the health sector is to give injections to children at medical facilities.
Parents must declare information about their children’s medical history to theschool and medical facilities so that they will be vaccinated at the hospital.
Phan Trong Lan, director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of PreventiveMedicine, said children aged 5-11 will have fewer and milder symptoms thanadults if they are vaccinated.
Early vaccination not only helps protect children but also can help protectfamily members, including those who are not eligible for vaccination or canbecome 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 5-11was essential to creating a safe community.
“We have been in contact with many infected children who have recovered fromthe disease and still have many long-term psychophysiological problems,” hesaid, adding that the hospital still receives calls from parents asking aboutchildren 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 theguidance of the Ministry of Health, asymptomatic COVID-19 cases can bevaccinated when the quarantine period is over.
“However, families can give their children time to recover from COVID-19 andhave a good response to the vaccine,” she said.
According to Dien, getting COVID-19 is the natural introduction of the virusinto the body and the body will react to create antibodies to fight the virusover 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 whohave recovered from COVID-19 vaccinated to supplement the antibody levelsin their body,” he said.
Health experts said after vaccination, children need to stay at the vaccinationsite for at least 30 minutes to monitor, detect and promptly handle seriousreactions.
Parents need to continuously monitor children’s health within 28 days aftervaccination, especially the first 48 hours.
On March 28, Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son signed a document to request thedepartments of Health of the provinces and cities to coordinate with thedepartments of Education and Training to review and make a list ofchildren from Grade 1 to 6 to get vaccinated.
Vietnam will start COVID-19 inoculations of children aged 5-11 years from thebeginning of April, using 13.7 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines(for children from 6) donated by the Australian Government./.
VNA
