Reporting AEFI tough job, many may be going unreported

The Centre had recently released a report on the Adverse Effect From Immunisation (AEFI) detected from the people that have been vaccinated with Covishield.

The government has claimed that since the Covid-19 vaccination drive was initiated, over 23,000 adverse events were reported. Of these, 700 cases were reported to be serious and severe.

The AEFI Committee’s in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events found 26 cases to be potential thromboembolic (formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel) events following the administration of Covishield vaccine – with a reporting rate of

0.61 cases/ million doses. However, in the absence of proper reporting mechanism and proactive approach of authorities to trace vaccinated people after they leave the vaccination site, such a claim may not be reflecting the true picture and full magnitude of the AEFI.

Here is a first hand expierence of struggle to get AEFI recorded in the national capital. It took me five days to get the AEFI recorded for my 21-yearold son.

My son was vaccinated on May 13 at EDMC PS Trilokpuri Site 1 (East Delhi) at around 11.15 am with Covishield. He stayed back for 30 minutes at the site to check for AEFI during which he had no other problem other than pain in arm. Back home, he developed 101 degrees C fever at 6.30 pm and complained of very sharp shooting pain in vaccinated arm. I gave him Dolo 650 for fever, as advised by the doctors. He again had fever next morning. But it was the fever on the evening of May 14, that alarmed me. My son reported high fever and numbness in hand. His hand was getting cold and finger nails started turning blue.

A doctor-friend saw him through video call and checked his tongue, eyes, palm and hands. He said none of them were blue and only fingernails were getting blue. The doctor asked us to give lots of fluid to him and wait for some time before going to the hospital while he figured where to get him admitted since hospitals were not easily accessible.

Thankfully, in about 30 minutes, his nails started turning pink again. His hands and feet were warm, there was no numbness and sensation was back.

I thought of reporting it as AEFI. The real struggle began now.

None of the helpline numbers given by the government – 1075, 191,

+911123978046, 01204473222 - were functional or reachable. There are no emails, no phone numbers of doctors available on any government site to report AEFI. No provision on CoWin or Aarogya Setu app.

I went back to the vaccination centre, a school, which was shut after 5 pm and got the number of the doctor on duty. He directed me to a Nodal Officer, who said he can only treat but has no role in recording AEFI.

Meanwhile, I had tagged ICMR, Union Health Ministry, Drugs Controller General of India, Serum Institute of India asking for contact details to report AEFI. There was no response. I also tagged Mr

Adar Poonawala who heads SII to guide me to report AEFI for his vaccine. He too has not responded so far.

Finally, I had to write in the group of health journalists after which my colleagues got active and with the intervention of some senior bureaucrats, I could manage to “report” AEFI of Covishield. This was four days of the AEFI.

After registering my AEFI report the district immunization officer called to take my son for a cardiological checkup. There was a fear of thrombosis. His ECG and blood tests were conducted, which thankfully were normal. But what if I had not made so much noise? What if he actually had thrombosis or some other severe side effect from

Covishield?

I have been hearing horror stories of people dying of cardiac arrest or other complications after vaccination. Two days back my sanitation staff came to me saying she will not get her son vaccinated because someone died in her neighbourhood soon after the vaccine dose. And all such things go unreported.

In my son's case the nodal official said he developed allergy to the vaccine. AEFI is exactly that. But we hate recording such data. If this is the condition in Delhi where educated are struggling, one can imagine what would be happening among general population in other areas.

It is important for the government to take AEFI