Japan to investigate cases of infected people after coronavirus vaccination

Japan plans to collect data from people infected with the novel coronavirus even after receiving vaccines to assess how vaccines might prevent the spread of the virus, sources close to the. business Sunday.

Inoculations in Japan are expected to begin in February. The health ministry will create a system to collect vaccine records of each infected person by adding check boxes to a document that doctors must send to public health centers when they diagnose coronavirus infections, the sources said.

Boxes for vaccine records are in the forms for reporting rubella and measles, other major communicable diseases.

The new system will allow authorities to access vaccination records of coronavirus patients, such as which vaccines they received and whether they had a single or double dose, according to the sources.

Based on overseas clinical trials and the reported efficacy, the currently available coronavirus vaccines protect against illness or severe symptoms, although it is not yet known whether they are preventable. from being infected.

By receiving information such as the ratio of vaccinated people among coronavirus patients and the improvement of their symptoms, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare expects to be able to assess the effectiveness of vaccines and the impact of vaccines on the spread of the disease. distributed within the country. , the sources said.

Vaccine efficacy is measured in the real world situation once a vaccine is approved for use in the general population, but efficacy is measured in controlled clinical trials, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others, with health experts pointing out. that the figures for the former may be lower than those of the latter due to obstacles in such a situation.

Under the law on infectious diseases in Japan, doctors of public health institutions are required to tell the names of people with a disease and their symptoms.

The government plans to start vaccinating medical workers in late February after it approved a vaccine for domestic use.

Inclusion of non-medical staff is expected to begin at the end of March, with priority given to people aged 65 and over as they are considered a high-risk group for developing symptoms. troma.

Vaccination records of coronavirus patients are also expected to be a marker to assess the risk of serious illnesses that would help doctors and health officials determine treatment policies, the sources said.

By maintaining the records, it may be possible for authorities to detect a change in the spread situation. They would suspect the spread of another strain of the vaccine – resistant virus if the number of people who are ill does not decrease significantly even after the spread of vaccines.

Japan, with a population of 126 million, has supply agreements with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC for 120 million vaccine doses each, as well as a contract with Moderna Inc. for another 50 million doses.

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