VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. Several European countries are considering mixing up COVID-19 vaccines for citizens who received a first dose of AstraZeneca’s shot, an unprecedented move that highlights challenges for governments struggling to tame fresh rises in infections.

Vaccination programmes have been upset after a small number of reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered extremely rare blood clots, leading some countries worldwide to suspend its use out of caution.

A senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday there was a link between the vaccine and rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes were still unknown.

The EMA later said in a statement that its review of the vaccine was ongoing. It will give an update on its investigation on Wednesday afternoon.

AstraZeneca has said previously its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of the vaccine, millions of doses of which have been administered worldwide.

While many countries have resumed using the shot, some have imposed age restrictions.

In many instances, this has left officials scratching their heads over what to do for people who received a first dose of AstraZeneca but are no longer eligible under the new rules.

While the numbers are small compared with the tens of millions being inoculated across the region, the decision is significant because it has not been tested in late-stage human trials.

Any divergence to the EMA’s marketing authorisation would also be considered as “off label use”, meaning it would not be approved by the regulator and leave individual countries responsible for any possible side-effects.

The EMA had no immediate comment when asked about mixing and matching vaccines and referred to the briefing later on Wednesday.

Some experts say that, because all of the vaccines target the same outer “spike” protein of the virus, they could work together to train the body to fight off the virus. There is no evidence it will be as effective.

Germany was the first European country to recommend on April 1 that people under 60 who have had a first AstraZeneca shot should receive a different product for their second dose.

Norway will decide whether to resume using AstraZeneca’s vaccine or rely on alternatives by April 15.

“The outcome is either you get one vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine ... or you get a booster vaccine with other types of vaccines,” Sara Viksmoen Watle, a senior physician at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, told Reuters.

Norwegian authorities are also waiting for the results of a British trial launched in February to explore mixing doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The timing of the data is not known.

Britain said late last year it would allow people to be given shots of different COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions, but it has not yet had to do so.

Finland, which resumed using the AstraZeneca vaccine from March 29, but will only give it to people aged 65 and over, said it would wait for the EMA’s conclusions before making a recommendation. It will have to start giving second doses by mid-April.

In France, where the vaccine can now only be used for those aged 55 or older, the issue affects hundreds of thousands of people.

A top health advisory body in charge of defining the use of vaccines, the Haute Autorité de la Santé (HAS), is also contemplating deploying a messengerRNA (mRNA) vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna as a second dose, according to two sources aware of the organisation’s plans.

A formal decision has not been yet taken, however, as experts await more data, notably from Britain, one of the sources added. France has until early May, which marks 12 weeks after the first doses were administered.

The HAS had no comment.

Back in February, it said there was no data to assess interchangeability of AstraZeneca’s vaccine and therefore advised that those who had already received a first dose should not get a different shot when vaccinated for the second time.

“We are left guessing and that makes me and other colleagues feel very uncomfortable,” said Charlotte Senechal, a 52-year-old hospital nurse working in Strasbourg, eastern France. (Reuters)

Jakarta. One in three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems, scientists said on Tuesday.

Researchers who conducted the analysis said it was not clear how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, but that these were the most common diagnoses among the 14 disorders they looked at.

Post-COVID cases of stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders were rarer, the researchers said, but were still significant, especially in those who had severe COVID-19.

“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial,” said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford University who co-led the work.

Max Taquet, also an Oxford psychiatrist who worked with Harrison, noted that the study was not able to examine the biological or psychological mechanisms involved, but said urgent research is needed to identify these “with a view to preventing or treating them”.

Health experts are increasingly concerned by evidence of higher risks of brain and mental health disorders among COVID-19 survivors. A previous study by the same researchers found last year that 20% of COVID-19 survivors were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within three months.

The new findings, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, analysed health records of 236,379 COVID-19 patients, mostly from the United States, and found 34% had been diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric illnesses within six months.

The disorders were significantly more common in COVID-19 patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same time period, the scientists said, suggesting COVID-19 had a specific impact.

Anxiety, at 17%, and mood disorders, at 14%, were the most common, and did not appear to be related to how mild or severe the patient’s COVID-19 infection had been.

Among those who had been admitted to intensive care with severe COVID-19 however, 7% had a stroke within six months, and almost 2% were diagnosed with dementia.

Independent experts said the findings were worrying.

“This is a very important paper. It confirms beyond any reasonable doubt that COVID-19 affects both brain and mind in equal measure,” said Simon Wessely, chair of psychiatry at King’s College London.

“The impact COVID-19 is having on individuals’ mental health can be severe,” said Lea Milligan, chief executive of the MQ Mental Health research charity. “This is contributing to the already rising levels of mental illness and requires further, urgent research.” (Reuters)

Jakarta. The Medan city government has secured 60 thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for senior citizens and their companions, which will be administered under a drive-through vaccination program.

"As of today, some one thousand elderly people have been inoculated," Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution informed at the opening ceremony of the city's drive-through vaccination program for elderly residents on Wednesday.

The city’s ex-Polonia Airport area is being used as the drive-through vaccination site where senior citizens and their companions can get vaccinated, he added.

So far, three thousand elderly people have registered on the Halodoc application for the drive-through vaccination program, Nasution informed.

Halodoc and the Medan city administration share the view that the enthusiasm of the city's residents for getting vaccinated is high, he said.

"Therefore, we are going to extend this vaccination service in our endeavor to have 70 percent of our population vaccinated," he remarked.

Indonesia has been striving to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year.

To stem the spread of the disease, the government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program since January 13 this year.

As of Wednesday (April 7, 2021), the Indonesian government has recorded 4,482,930 people receiving their second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The second-dose recipients include health workers and frontline public service workers. The government also revealed that 9,132,545 people have obtained their first shots.

The Health Ministry estimates a time period of 15 months will be required to vaccinate about 70 percent of the country's total population under the national program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated recently.

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate at least 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers, in 34 provinces, she informed.

According to Tarmizi, the first phase of the government's immunization program has been divided into two periods: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022.  (Antaranews)

Jakarta. The Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) headquarters has issued a clarification on a foreign jet fighter that was reported flying low over Natuna waters in Riau Islands, as shown on a video circulating on social media.

The TNI AU has checked the video showing the coordinates of the jet fighter, which was flying at a low altitude, chief of the TNI AU Information Service, Air Commodore Indan Gilang B, said in a written statement released on Wednesday.

The incident occurred at around 4.15 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

"In Natuna waters, a foreign jet fighter, believed to be an F-18 Hornet, has flown over FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading Vessel) Kakap Natuna operated by an Indonesian oil company and located in the exclusive economic zone, about 169 miles west of Natuna Islands," he informed.

Based on the result of a preliminary investigation, the jet fighter flew outside Indonesian territory, he said.

The TNI AU will continue to study the incident in detail, he added.

"The jet fighter flew outside Indonesian territory. At this moment, the TNI AU is studying the incident thoroughly along with the relevant parties," he said.  (Antaranews)