The 32-year-old doctor from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in Nuevo León is in intensive care.
The Mexican government is studying the case of a doctor with an allergic history who is in intensive care for developing encephalitis, inflammation of the brain, after receiving the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine against covid-19.
“With the scientific evidence available from the clinical studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 virus, no one had previously developed encephalitis after the administration of the vaccine,” the Ministry of Health reported ( Ssa) it is a statement.
The government agency specified that the woman is a 32-year-old physician from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in the northern state of Nuevo León, where she received the drug this week.
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The doctor, the SSa said, has a history of allergic reactions to medications such as trimethoprim with sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic that fights urinary tract infections.
His initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis, which is described as a brief but intense bout of inflammation in the brain, usually from a viral infection.
The woman had a rash, seizures, decreased muscle strength, and breathlessness within half an hour after the dose was administered.
“The response was detected within the specific area of observation of the vaccination cell in which the doctor received her vaccine,” the SSa indicated.
Mexico is one of the first countries in the world to initiate vaccination against covid-19, but so far it has received only about 53,000 doses of the drug from Pfizer-BioNTech, all applied to medical personnel.
The government of Mexico, where the pandemic caused more than 1.4 million infections and more than 126,000 deaths, has opted for early access to the vaccine.
The country has pre-purchase contracts for 34.4 million doses from Pfizer, 77.4 million from AstraZeneca in the UK, 35 million from CanSino from China and 34.4 million from the World Health Organization (WHO) Covax platform. .
Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, promised to vaccinate all health workers against Covid-19 by the end of January and against “most” vulnerable populations by April.
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Mexico will receive another batch of Pfizer vaccines next Tuesday, in addition to formalizing the acquisition of 12 million doses for three months from January to March of CanSino from China next week.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (SSa) confirmed that it follows the protocol of “Events Believed to Be Attributed to Vaccination and Immunization” of the Federal Commission for Protection from Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).
“The doctor is being observed and treated by specialists in critical medicine to reduce the presented encephalitis. The intensive specialized treatment will be continued ”, he concludes.