A 32-year-old female doctor in Mexico was hospitalised after being administered the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine last week.
The medical professional started experiencing seizures, difficulty in breathing, and a skin rash after receiving the vaccine. She was admitted to the intensive care unit in Nuevo Leon's public hospital.
"The initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis," the Health Ministry said in a statement. In Encephalomyelitis, the brain and spinal cord inflame and can cause the above-mentioned symptoms.
The ministry added that the doctor has a history of allergic reactions and said that there is no evidence from clinical trials that anyone has developed an inflammation of the brain after the vaccine's application.
Finland also reported a case which reacted negatively to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on January 2. As per the Finnish Medicines Agency, there are “at least five such reports”,
The World Health Organization had earlier cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.
The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at ultra-frozen temperatures, a big hurdle for developing countries where the required freezers and reliable electricity supply may not be available.
Mexico began distributing the first round of Covid-19 vaccines to healthcare workers on December 24.
(With agency inputs)
