Health Minister cautions against taking COVID vaccines and filaria pills same day

Responding to a question submitted by News Source, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said while there is no evidence of any effect of the two being taken together, out of an abundance of caution, the Ministry is advising against the two being taken within the same space of time.

Health Minister cautions against taking COVID vaccines and filaria pills same day

The Ministry of Health is cautioning citizens against taking the vaccines to fight coronavirus within 24hrs of taking pills to fight filaria.

Responding to a question submitted by News Source, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said while there is no evidence of any effect of the two being taken together, out of an abundance of caution, the Ministry is advising against the two being taken within the same space of time.

“There is nothing that prevents taking the vaccine if you’ve had filaria pills. Internally, we have come up with a protocol that says okay just to make sure that we are able to monitor people to see whether there are any side effects, don’t take the two things on the same day, that is just out of an abundance of caution, so when we give the vaccine we want to have enough time to monitor you to make sure there is no reaction” the Health Minister said.

The Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation are currently conducting a national mass drug distribution campaign to fight filaria.

Some in the medical field recently expressed some concern about the vaccines for COVID-19 and the filaria pills being taken together.

So far, Guyana has only started to administer the AstraZenika COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers. Vaccines for the wider population are expected within the next month.

The pill distribution campaign to fight filaria comes to an end in March.

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