Skip to main content

1 in 7 volunteers for Sputnik V, Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine report side effects: Russian minister

By Unknown

One in seven volunteers complained of side effects after being injected with Sputnik V, Russia’s experimental vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the country’s health minister has said.

Mikhail Murashko, the Russian health minister, said more than 300 out of the announced 40,000 volunteers have been vaccinated with Sputnik V so far, according to the state-run TASS news agency.


“Approximately 14% have small complaints of weakness, muscle pain for 24 hours and an occasional increase in body temperature,” TASS quoted Murashko as saying on Wednesday, according to Moscow Times.


The minister said the symptoms after being injected with the anti-coronavirus vaccine “level off” by the next day. “The complications are described in the instructions and are predictable,” he said, according to TASS.


Volunteers are expected to receive a second shot of the adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine within 21 days of the first.


The Sputnik V has yet to complete large scale clinical trials but was approved by the Russian government last month, becoming the first Covid-19 vaccine to be cleared for human use anywhere in the world.


Final clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine began in Moscow earlier this month.


Scientists have, however, cautioned against the use of any shot that has not passed full safety and efficacy checks.


The Russian health minister’s comments came after the country’s sovereign wealth fund said it has reached an agreement with pharmaceuticals major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for clinical trials and distribution of Sputnik V in India, a process that is yet to be cleared by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).


Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has said it supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to Dr Reddy’s after regulatory approval in India. Indian officials said approvals will be given only after a thorough review.


Sputnik V did not lead to side effects and triggered an adequate immune response in 76 volunteers according to phase 1/2 trial data published in The Lancet journal earlier this month. But the results have been disputed by some scientists, who have sought a review of the data, citing what they said were striking similarities between patients.


RDIF reiterated on Wednesday that the vaccine is safe. “The Sputnik V vaccine, which is based on well-studied human adenoviral vector platform with proven safety, is undergoing clinical trials for the Coronavirus pandemic. Deliveries could potentially begin in late 2020 subject to completion of successful trials and registration of the vaccine by regulatory authorities in India,” a statement said.


The Sputnik V is among several vaccine candidates being considered by Indian authorities for the country. Dr Balram Bhargava, the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), earlier said that a high-level government committee was looking into the data coming from Russia on its Covid-19 vaccine.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iran, Russia Discussing Joint Production Of COVID-19 Vaccine

By Unknown
Iran and Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF are discussing the joint production of a vaccine against COVID-19, Russian news agencies cited the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Friday. "We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was cited as saying. Thus far, Russia has struck a manufacturing partnership deal with India, which is due to produce 300 million doses of the 'Sputnik-V' vaccine domestically. It is also discussing such partnerships with several other countries, including Brazil.
Post a Comment
Read more

Increased risks of drop out for women and girls : CoronaVirus Updates

By Unknown
The total number of children not returning to their education after the school closures is likely to be significant. The pandemic also risks jeopardizing some of the gains made since 2001 in re-building women and girls’ education following the Taliban regime.  The COVID-19 pandemic is creating additional barriers due to risks—and students’ and parents’ anxiety about risks—associated with children returning to classrooms that are cramped, with no capacity for distancing, often cold, damp and poorly ventilated during the country’s severe winters, and have no or poor hygiene and clean water facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive many women and girls out of education permanently. School closures due to COVID-19, resulting increases in caregiving responsibilities for women and girls, and increases in poverty and unemployment will all make it harder for women and girls to study.  These factors combine in harmful ways with pre-existing discriminatory gender norms, o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia's Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V available to public now: State media

By Unknown
First batches of Russia's Covid vaccine Sputnik V have entered "civil circulation" in capital Moscow, state media reported on Thursday. While details on the process were not immediately available, Russia has repeatedly stressed on producing the vaccine at the earliest, a belief met with international scepticism. Earlier this month, the Russian health ministry had said that batches of the Covid-19 vaccine were being produced for public distribution and would be supplied to different regions soon. "The first batch of the vaccine for preventing the novel coronavirus infection, Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry passed the required quality tests in the laboratories of Roszdravnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare) and was produced for civilian circulation. In the near future the supplies of the first batches of the vaccine to the regions are expected...
Post a Comment
Read more