Vaccination prevents post-COVID syndrome – Dr Anthony

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has urged Guyanese to consider the slew of benefits which COVID vaccination will bring about, one of which is the prevention of post-COVID syndrome should a person become infected.
Post-COVID syndrome includes a wide range of new or ongoing health problems people can experience weeks after first being infected with COVID-19. Even people who did not have COVID-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-COVID conditions.
As such, the Health Minister said these lingering effects can be avoided with vaccination against the virus.
“With vaccination, it makes a big difference because all the evidence has shown that people who are vaccinated, even if they get COVID, they will get a milder form, but it would also prevent them from getting post-COVID syndrome or all the lingering effects after an acute infection. I think that’s a really great benefit so if people have not been vaccinated, this is something they should think about and go get vaccinated,” he outlined.
He underscored the fact that COVID-19 can affect any part of the body, and this is evidenced by manifestations which even affect organs. After a person makes it through the acute phase, a “host of problems” can still arise.
“Even if you get COVID now and you get a milder form of COVID, it does not prevent you from getting post-COVID syndrome because the virus itself can infect almost any part of the body. In some, we have seen manifestation of COVID after the acute phase of the infection, that they can have problems with the virus getting into their brain and it creates inflammation in the brain, which results in things like brain fog, confusion and a whole host of other problems.”
“In some people who would have gotten past the acute phase, they can have heart problems. We have seen COVID mimic heart attacks and create a lot of problems for people. We know that with COVID, you can have renal diseases, lung diseases, so there are a whole host of problems that even after you get through the acute phase, this thing can be there for many months after,” he added.
Dr Anthony pointed out that in countries with low vaccination rate, the virus tends to spread faster among populations because no immunity was developed to fend off the coronavirus.
“One way of addressing that is to make sure that you have high vaccination rates in those countries. If you have a country that didn’t have a lot of cases initially in the different waves and they’re not vaccinated, they are going to get lots of cases. You are going to see spikes of cases and waves of cases in those countries.”
In Guyana, first dose vaccination accounts for 435,509 doses or 84.9 per cent of the adult population; with 323,605 jabs or 64.8 per cent of the adult population being fully vaccinated.
For children aged 12 to 17, there is a 33,938 or 46.5 per cent first dose coverage; and 24,612 or 33.7 per cent second doses. Booster shots have moved up to 54,195. (G12)