CAMAGÜEY.- A group is waiting, apparently calmly, but it is the most longed-for prick for a long time, especially for them, Health personnel, who have breastfed the pandemic. And although they have had the means to protect themselves, the risk is always there as long as the vaccine or a specific treatment does not exist.
With those brave people who have deserved our applause for more than a year, the health intervention with the vaccine candidate Abdala began in Camagüey, which aims to protect them from contracting COVID-19.
The planned process of three doses every 14 days will reach 100% of the workers in the sector, including students and professors of the University of Medical Sciences, for which 37,800 doses are already available in Camagüey.
According to Reinaldo Pons Vázquez, provincial director of Health, there are all the conditions created in the provincial hospitals, in the municipalities and health areas that add up to a total of 42 vaccination sites and 51 vaccinations.
“We have been preparing for this intervention for some time, the premises that were to be used as vaccinations were certified, the staff was prepared, including 164 nurses who will provide the doses. An average of 4 500 vaccinated daily is needed to be able to comply with the cycle required by Abdala”.
In addition, Dr. Pons Vázquez clarified that it is based on voluntariness and there are temporary or definitive exclusion criteria. "Within this intervention, a group of people will also be immunized who, although they are not health workers, are linked to isolation centers, prisons and other risk groups, for this there are 2,000 doses available."
The provincial director of the sector referred to the fact that the process includes the Manuel Ascunse Domenech clinical-surgical teaching hospital, which at this time presents a COVID-19 transmission event, but all the conditions have been created so that, except the personnel who has the active virus, everyone else receives immunization.
In the polyclinic where the outpatient consultations work, belonging to the Eduardo Agramonte Piña provincial pediatric hospital, vaccination began as in the rest of the 42 vaccination sites with checks of blood pressure, temperature, stability of chronic diseases and all the parameters that ensure good status of patients before they are immunized.
Among the exclusion criteria is having recently suffered from COVID-19, receiving some type of immunomodulators or immunosuppressants, allergy to thimerosal or aluminum, and pregnant women or in the puerperium and lactation stages, among other criteria.
After the vaccination, the observation is extended for one hour to visualize some type of adverse reaction, if there is, it is transferred to an observation room. At each vaccine site there is a group of researchers who monitor and evidence each reaction to the drug. Everything is checked at the level of detail, to the point that a person registers the temperature of the bulbs that to be supplied have to be between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
Adelante Digital spoke with some vaccinated from the Pediatric Hospital itself, from the Marie Curie cancer hospital, where the students of the Medical University and the polyclinic of the Previsora area will receive the dose.
Daymí Savedra Morelos, a 2nd degree specialist in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Pediatric Hospital, is one of those who has not stopped working, since her position is key in the institution.
“My family was anxious for me to get vaccinated, because at home I am the most exposed. Even after the vaccine, we must continue taking care of ourselves, applying hygienic-sanitary measures, so as not to get sick, since this is the first of three doses.
“As part of the principle of voluntariness, it was also explained to us that we can abandon the process as soon as we understand, and if we do not want to reactivate the dose, within 14 days, due to the appearance of a reaction we could do so. But I have a lot of confidence in Cuban biotechnology, even my mother told me that if it was not a Cuban vaccine, she would not get any, "she added.
Yesterday the doses of #Abdala for the #Sanitary Intervention arrived at the drugstores in Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Las Tunas and Holguín. The workers of these drugstores prepare the distribution to each vaccination site. # LaFuerzaDeUnPaís pic.twitter.com/swC28Em3aA
Daimaris Montero Gutiérrez, a sixth-year medical student, vertical Oncology intern, had been vaccinated for about 30 minutes and she reported not feeling any adverse reaction to the injection. “I am very happy to have been one of the first people to receive the dose, until this moment I feel good, I have a lot of confidence in these vaccines ”, she emphasized.
Serafín Sánchez Cabrera, who received the first dose at Previsora, had a similar reaction, "I feel fine, the injection area doesn't even hurt."
Dr. Silencio Vegas Olivares, in charge of the observation room set up in that Health area, explained that alarming immediate reactions had not appeared. "Beyond the emotional, none. Many even claim that they do not even feel the common pain in the arm that other vaccines can cause, ”he emphasized.
This is an important step in the Cuban battle against the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, since the application of the vaccine candidate in populations at risk such as health workers, prevents the spread of the virus and protects health institutions from transmission events that may further complicate the epidemiological situation in the country, while strengthening the work of the sector and with it the safety of medical care.
- Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez