Nine people have died after getting influenza shots in South Korea in the past week, raising concerns over the vaccine’s safety just as the seasonal inoculation program is being expanded to head off potential COVID-19 complications.
Five new deaths were reported yesterday, but officials had no plans to suspend the vaccination program, unless investigations, including postmortems, revealed a link, which preliminary findings had not.
“We have reviewed whether it is appropriate to continue the vaccination or better to suspend and wait for the results,” official Kim Joong-gon said.
Photo: Reuters
“We came to the conclusion that the deaths had no direct relations with the vaccination given the limited data we have now and without detailed postmortem reports,” he said.
Kim said a preliminary investigation into six victims revealed that five had underlying conditions.
Officials also said no toxic substances had been found in the same vaccine given to other people.
Coming just weeks after the roll out of the national vaccine program was temporarily suspended over safety worries, the deaths, which include a 17-year-old boy and a man in his 70s, have dominated news headlines in South Korea.
With winter approaching, the country is planning to inoculate 30 million people in a bid to prevent the health system being overloaded by patients with flu and COVID-19 exposure.
However, the start of the free jab program for about 19 million eligible people was suspended for three weeks after it was discovered that about 5 million doses, which need to be refrigerated, had been exposed to room temperature while being transported to a facility.
Officials said 8.36 million people have been given the free flu vaccine since inoculations resumed on Tuesday last week.
Adverse reactions — including fever, diarrhea and allergies, according to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Director Jeong Eun-kyeong — were reported in 430 people who received the jabs.
The number is higher than 132 and 177 cases of adverse reactions in 2018 and last year respectively.
Since 2009, about 25 people who received a seasonal flu vaccination have died, but cause-and-effect has not been established, Jeong said.
The vaccines are supplied by different drugmakers, including LG Chem and Boryung Biopharma Co, a unit of Boryung Pharm Co.
A Boryung official said the company was aware of the reported deaths, but had no immediate comment, while LG Chem said it would follow government advice.
Boosting public trust in vaccines has become a major global challenge this year, as some nations rush to approve experimental COVID-19 vaccines before full safety and efficacy studies have been completed.
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