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A healthcare professional who received the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the United States had a severe allergic reaction and had to be hospitalized. The case is the first of its kind with people who have no history of allergies. Last week, two people who got the vaccine in the UK had severe allergic reactions but already had a known allergic history.
The case happened to a middle-aged woman, according to a report in The New York Times newspaper echoed by the US media. The health professional was vaccinated yesterday in the city of Juneau, capital of Alaska, on the second day of the vaccination campaign against covid-19 started in the United States. Just ten minutes after receiving the immunizer, she had an anaphylactic reaction.
The reaction was demonstrated by redness of the skin and difficulty in breathing. Treatment with epinephrine, a drug commonly used in severe allergic reactions, was needed. The woman was hospitalized for observation and remained stable today until the latest bulletin from US health officials.
According to Dr. Lindy Jones, director of the emergency department at Bartlett Regional Hospital, where the patient was treated, the symptoms disappeared shortly after the woman was medicated.
“She is healthy and fine,” Lindy told the New York Times, adding that the patient has not lost enthusiasm for the vaccine. The expectation is that she will be discharged today.
The allergic reaction of the United States healthcare professional is similar to that of vaccinated patients in the United Kingdom who also had anaphylactic reactions. They both recover, but prompted a warning from UK authorities about the Pfizer vaccine.
Last Wednesday (9), a day after the country started vaccination, the MHRA (UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency) reported that people with excessive allergies should not receive the vaccine.
In contact with the New York Times, Pfizer recalled that its vaccine comes with the information that medical treatment may be necessary in the event of a rare anaphylactic reaction. The US lab also said it was still looking for details about the case in Alaska.
* With information from Reuters
