The director of the Health Department in Jeddah has also claimed city hospitals are fully equipped to counter any spread of swine flu, while attempting to allay public fears about the H1N1 vaccine. “The vaccine used by the Ministry of Health is safe and does not carry any noticeable side effects and there is no need to have any fear about it,” Dr. Sami Badawood told Arab News.
The director urged all parents to let their children receive the jab so they were protected against the virus. There had been some misinformation about the side effects of the vaccine, he added.
“The ministry imported the vaccine only after confirming that it did not contain any harmful ingredients that harmed human health. The greatest evidence to its safety is the fact that all officials at the Ministry of Health took the shot, as did many other people and they did not develop any side effects,” he said.
Badawood said that a smear campaign against the H1N1 vaccination drive is going on following an incident at an elementary school where a student fainted after taking the vaccination.
“The student was immediately taken to hospital and was reported to be in good health after two hours,” he added.
It has emerged that 80 percent of parents in Yanbu had not consented to their children receiving the H1N1 jab since the vaccination campaign started in the governorate.
“We visited four schools in Yanbu and found that only 100 students, accounting for less than 20 percent of the total number of pupils, came forward to take the jab,” Dr. Rida Al-Mulayji, a consultant at a Yanbu hospital said. He also said that there was no need for the public to panic about the side effects of the vaccine. On the other hand, parents in Yanbu told Arab News the ministry’s assurances were not enough.
It was also reported that some parents were so scared about the vaccine they did not send their children to school on the first day of the campaign.