Healthcare providers should first assess the condition of an individual before administering the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and other vaccines at the same time, the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (PSMID) said.
"The decision to co-administer a COVID-19 vaccine and non-COVID-19 vaccine, or the simultaneous administration of these, is a shared decision-making process between the individual and the healthcare provider," the PSMID said in a statement on Friday, July 16.
"The latter should take into consideration a vaccine recipient’s risk of vaccine-preventable disease (i.e., during an outbreak, or an occupational exposure), the adverse event profile of the vaccines, and the vaccine recipient’s risk of delay in the recommended vaccines that he/she has to receive," it added.
The PSMID said that vaccine recipients should first be informed of the adverse effects before conducting a simultaneous vaccination.
"If co-administration, or simultaneous administration, of COVID19 and other vaccines occurs, vaccine recipients should be advised that there is a possibility of increased likelihood of common adverse events, and be reminded to report any of these events, but that causality assessment may become difficult," it said.
"Vaccination should be deferred if the recipient is acutely unwell, regardless of vaccine. If a person experiences a short term expected adverse event (e.g., fever) following vaccination, the adverse event should resolve first before other vaccines are administered," it added.