South Korea Is Moving Forward With The Flu Vaccine Program Even Though 48 People Die In Testing

Influenza vaccine (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - The South Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday that a total of 48 people had died after receiving the flu vaccine, but the government's vaccination program will continue.

Referring to a study, KDCA said it did not find a direct link between flu vaccine injections with the 26 cases of deaths that had been investigated, so that programs are continuing to run to prevent the occurrence of a flu epidemic coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic in winter.

"After examining the death cases so far, now is not the time to suspend the flu vaccination program because vaccination is very crucial this year, considering the COVID-19 outbreak," said KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyung.

Preliminary autopsy results from the 20 dead victims provided by the police and the National Forensic Service showed that 13 of them died from heart disease, cerebral vascular disease and other diseases not as a result of vaccination.

The number of victims today is 48 people, after increasing by 12 people from the previous day. The increasing number of deaths has prompted a number of doctors and politicians to call for an end to the government's campaign to vaccinate around 30 million citizens or more than half of the total population of 54 million people.

While encouraging people to get the flu vaccine, Jeong suggested precautionary steps that can be taken before being injected with the vaccine, such as drinking enough water and notifying medical workers about any medical conditions they are experiencing.

Jeong also asked people to wait for 15 to 30 minutes after injection before they leave the clinic where the vaccination is.

"If possible, try to get the vaccine warm because there is an opinion that low temperatures can have an impact on heart vessel disease and cerebral vascular disease," he said.

According to KDCA data, as many as 9.4 million people had received the flu vaccine as of Friday (23/10), after the program began in September, with 1,154 cases of incompatible reactions.

Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases in South Korea on midnight Friday increased by 77 cases, bringing the current total to 25,775 cases and 457 deaths.