IDAI: Children Don't Need To Take Paracetamol If They Don't Have A Fever After The Vaccine

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JAKARTA - Head of the IDAI Immunization Task Force, Hartono Gunardi, suggested that parents do not need to give paracetamol to their children if fever symptoms do not appear after the COVID-19 vaccination because it can affect the antibody formation process.

"If there is a fever, we give paracetamol. But please really, do not give paracetamol before the onset of fever. Because if you give paracetamol before the fever starts, it will interfere with the antibody formation process so that your immunity will be lower," Hartono said, quoted by Antara, Friday, December 17.

This, he continued, was based on observations and experiences of other types of vaccination given to children or infants in general.

“For the COVID-19 vaccine, this has not actually been studied. But to be safe, do not be given fever-lowering drugs before the onset of fever. If you have a fever, please give fever-reducing medication," he said.

Fever is one form of the body's response after getting a vaccine injection or commonly referred to as Post-Immunization Adverse Events (AEFI).

Hartono said that post-covid-19 AEFIs generally have mild symptoms which are divided into two, namely local and systemic.

In local symptoms, side effects are felt in the form of pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site. Meanwhile, systemic AEFIs are in the form of weakness, drowsiness, warm body, and fever.

Chairperson of IDAI Piprim Basarah Yanuarso said that until now there were no severe AEFIs in adolescents or children after immunization which was directly caused by the COVID-19 vaccination. Reported AEFIs are local or mild AEFIs, including symptoms of fever.

"Just now a webinar with the chairman of Komnas KIPI Prof. He said that at this time there was none," he said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the International Paediatrics Association (IPA) Aman Bhakti Pulungan emphasized that in general the symptoms of AEFI in COVID-19 vaccination are no different from existing immunizations.

"If we know that some immunizations have more AEFIs than COVID-19 immunizations. For now, there is no problem with this AEFI," he said.