SA CONSIDERING BOOSTER SHOT FOR HEALTH WORKERS

During South Africa’s Sisonke trial last year, almost one million health care workers were injected with Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) vaccine.

The programme used leftover stock from J&J’s international vaccine trials and ran at a time when South Africa had no other jabs available. The local study’s goal was to provide protection to South Africa’s frontline workers, reports News24.

The World Health Organisation has called on governments across the world to consider giving booster shots to those who received the J&J vaccine at the beginning of the pandemic.

Now the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority is considering giving those who were part of the trial and received the single dose J&J vaccine, to get a booster shot.

Candidates include health care workers, the elderly, those with weak immune systems like organ donors and those with other health implications that could affect their immune systems and the effectiveness of the vaccine.

As with all vaccines, the Covid-19 vaccine will protect those that have been vaccinated against becoming seriously ill with the virus. It is still unclear though how long the protection lasts.

Image credit: Johnson & Johnson