The Covid-19 vaccine recipients who completed the full course of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh, reported mild to severe muscle pain, headache, pain at the injection site, nausea, and fever.
As per health care experts, vaccine recipients should anticipate these kinds of side effects after getting the second shot.
A doctor also told Dhaka Tribune that leaving the vaccine centre right after getting the shot is not a good idea. Healthcare workers need to see if vaccine recipients go into shock in rare cases.
As of Wednesday, a total of 733,175 people completed the full course of Covid-19 vaccination, according to the daily Covid-19 vaccination update released on Wednesday afternoon by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The side effects
Kaberi Maitraya, a journalist, took the second shot on Saturday. She took the shot at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the morning and started feeling intense muscle pain and headache. Later, her body temperature went up.
“I was a bit worried and talked to the doctor. My doctor said this pain and fever may be temporary. He asked me to take rest for the rest of the day,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
Kaberi said they were exactly the same symptoms after she took the first dose. However, she was feeling nauseous after the first dose but she did not feel any kind of nausea after the second dose.
Dr Tanjina Hossain, associate professor, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Green Life Medical College and Hospital, told Dhaka Tribune that she did not feel any side effects after getting the first shot but after getting the second shot she was suffering from extreme muscle pain.
“Vaccine recipients developed antibodies in limited scale after the first dose and they develop around 80% antibody in their system after the second dose. When a person receives a foreign protein body in their system, they will feel these common side effects,” Dr Tanjina added.
In rare cases, people can get anaphylactic shock (severe allergic reaction to an antigen to which the body has become hypersensitive) after getting any type of vaccine.
“This is why a vaccine recipient should wait at the centre at least for half an hour so that healthcare workers can act promptly if the recipients show severe side effects,” she told the correspondent.
She also said that young people are likely to feel more side-effects as their body develops antibodies more rapidly compared to older people.
“Common side effects from vaccination are pain, redness, and swelling on the arm where the shot was given, and tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, and nausea throughout the rest of the body,” according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Nahida Dipa, a development worker, reports mild pain in her body after getting the second shot on Tuesday.
“I feel like my arm weighs a ton. I am also feeling a bit feverish,” she said.
Aklima Khatun Kushum, a government official, told Dhaka Tribune she felt mild fever and body ache the day she took the second dose, but she felt completely healthy the day after.
“We are still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of Covid-19. After you’ve been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, you should keep taking precautions in public places like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, and washing your hands often,” CDC recommends.
Bangladesh has been again seeing a steep rise in Covid-19 deaths and infections in the last few weeks.
The country recorded the highest deaths, yet again, on Wednesday as 96 people died of the novel coronavirus over the last 24 hours.
This was the fourth time in the last five days that Bangladesh broke its record for most Covid-19 deaths in a single day. The total fatalities in the country now stands at 9,987.
The country also logged 5,185 new Covid-19 cases during the same period, taking the total number infections to 703,170, according to DGHS.
