The 32-year-old doctor from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in Nuevo León is in intensive care.
The Mexican government is studying the case of a doctor with a history of allergies who is in intensive care to develop encephalitis, inflammation in the brain, after receiving the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine against covid-19.
“With the available scientific evidence from the clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, no one had previously had encephalitis after the vaccine was administered,” the Ministry of Health said on Saturday. (SSa) in a statement.
The government agency said the woman is a 32-year-old doctor from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in the northern state of Nuevo León, where she received the drug this week.
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The doctor, SSa said, has a history of allergic reactions to medications such as trimethoprim with sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic that fights urinary tract infections.
Its initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis, which is described as a brief but intense attack of inflammation in the brain, usually by a viral infection.
The woman presented with rash, seizures, decreased muscle strength and difficulty breathing, in the next half hour at the application of the dose.
“The reaction was detected within the specific observation area of the vaccination cell in which the doctor received her vaccine,” the SSa indicated.
Mexico is one of the first countries in the world to start vaccination against covid-19, but so far it has only received about 53,000 doses of the drug Pfizer-BioNTech, all applied to healthcare professionals.
The Mexican government, where the pandemic has left more than 1.4 million infected and more than 126,000 dead, has opted for early access to the vaccine.
The country has pre-purchase contracts for 34.4 million doses of Pfizer, 77.4 million for the British AstraZeneca, 35 million for the Chinese Cansino and 34.4 million for the COVAX platform of the World Health Organization (WHO) .
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised to vaccinate covid-19 to all health personnel by the end of January and to “the majority” of its vulnerable population by April.
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Mexico will receive another batch of Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday, in addition to the week that will formalize the acquisition of 12 million doses for three months, from January to March, of the Chinese Cansino.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (SSa) stated that it follows the protocol of “Events allegedly attributable to vaccination and immunization” of the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS).
“The doctor is under observation and treatment by critical medicine specialists to decrease the brain inflammation presented. Intensive specialized treatment will be continued,” she concluded.