COVID-19 vaccination India | Telangana woman dies within a week of getting vaccinated, AEFI committee examining cause

The District Adverse Effect After Vaccination (AEFI) committee is examining the 45-year-old healthcare worker's death and will submit its report to the state AEFI Committee soon, the Office of Director of Public Health, Telangana, said.

Moneycontrol News

January 24, 2021 / 09:39 PM IST

A woman healthcare worker, who got her COVID-19 vaccine shot on January 19 in Warangal Urban district, passed away on January 24.

The District Adverse Effect After Vaccination (AEFI) committee is examining the 45-year-old healthcare worker's death and will submit its report to the state AEFI Committee soon, the Office of Director of Public Health, Telangana, told news agency ANI.

An Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker aged 42 years also died post-vaccination in Andhra Pradesh on January 24, sparking protests in the state. She had got vaccinated on January 19 and had to be taken to a hospital on January 21 after she fainted.

India has so far reported eight deaths post coronavirus vaccination, but the Health Ministry has said that none of the deaths can be linked to the vaccine.

The cumulative number of vaccinated healthcare workers across the country stands at 16,13,667 as of January 24. Over the past nine days, 28,613 vaccination sessions have been held in the country.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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