The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

9 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,O ctober 28,2021 insidehalton.com lortnoc ysae rof tatsomreht detacol yltneinevnoC • smeti desu yltneuqerf rof sevlehs rood 4 • sevlehs ezeerf kciuq 3 • )C34 ot C71-( F011 ot F0 morf serutarepmet ni mrofrep nac rezeerF :ydaeR egaraG • SREZEERF THGIRPU GNIVAS-ECAPS .secapS tcapmoC rof tcefreP .sroced dna sdlohesuoh fo sepyt lla rof laedi era ybnaD yb srezeerf thgirpu nredoM DDW4A580MFUD NWOHS LEDOM 7491 ECNIS moc.ybnaD ta srezeerf tsehc dna thgirpu fo enil lluf s'ybnaD eeS Less than one per cent of Hal- ton residents who received a CO- VID-19 vaccine this year have ex- perienced unfavourable side ef- fects afterwards, says Halton Public Health. Details on what's known as adverse events following immu- nization, or AEFIs, were dis- cussed by Halton Medical Offi- cer of Health Dr. Hamidah Megh- ani during the Oct. 20 regional council meeting. She defined an AEFI as "an unwanted or unexpected health effect that happens after receiv- ing a vaccine, that may or may not be caused by the vaccine." "Some examples of AEFIs commonly reported include a rash, fainting and severe vomit- ing or diarrhea," she said. As of Oct. 17 in Halton, there have been 635 confirmed AEFI investigations this year related to COVID-19 vaccines, with 592 classified as non-serious and 43 deemed serious. "AEFIs remain extremely rare," said Halton Public Health in a statement to Metroland Me- dia. "To date, only 0.14 per cent of Halton residents who were im- munized against COVID-19 have experienced an AEFI, and al- most all have been non-serious in nature (e.g. rash, pain/red- ness/swelling)." As of this month, over 800,000 COVID-19 vaccines (including first and second doses) have been administered in Halton. Meghani told council that AE- FI reporting is done for all vac- cines, not just the ones that pro- vide protection from COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, Halton Public Health typically received 25 to 35 confirmed AEFI reports per year, according to informa- tion Halton provided local health care professionals earlier this year. The process starts by health- care providers filling out an AE- FI form on behalf of their pa- tient. The information then goes through a verification process by Halton Public Health -- some- thing that Meghani said has tak- en a "huge effort" in 2021 due to the mass COVID-19 vaccination program. "We had to form a whole new team to do this work. That's be- cause the number of people get- ting vaccinated this year is un- precedented," she said. "At this time, what we are seeing is that the vaccines remain safe and ef- fective." According to Public Health Ontario, there were 14,047 AEFI reports received across the prov- ince following over 22 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines ad- ministered between Dec. 13, 2020 and Oct. 17 this year. Almost 95 per cent, or 13,264, were considered non-serious, while 783 cases were considered serious. Of that latter, 775 re- ports had a hospital admission related to the adverse event, while eight were reports of death. "Reports of death that meet the provincial case definition are events temporarily associated with a vaccine that have not been clearly attributed to other causes," explains the surveil- lance report from Public Health Ontario. "These reports should not be interpreted as causally re- lated with a vaccine." For more on vaccination in Halton, visit halton.ca/COVID- vaccines. HALTON REPORTS 635 ADVERSE REACTIONS AFTER COVID-19 VACCINATION Adverse reactions after vaccination are extremely rare, says Halton Public Health. Steve Somerville/Metroland MELANIE HENNESSEY mhennessey@metroland.com NEWS