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HSE to update vaccine registration process for pregnant women after confusion over rollout

There were calls for clarity at the weekend as some pregnant women tried to get their jab at a walk-in clinic or register through the HSE helpline.

THE HSE HAS said its systems will be updated by the end of this week to allow pregnant women under 14 weeks’ gestation to register for and receive a vaccine, following confusion over the rollout to this group.

Last week the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) issued new recommendations stating that pregnant women and adolescents from 12 years of age should be offered an mRNA vaccine at any stage of pregnancy, following consultation with their obstetric care giver.

At the time the new guidance was announced, the changes had not yet been implemented across the HSE’s system and there has been confusion as pregnant women try to register for a jab.

Dr Vicky O’Dwyer, obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin told The Journal she has received reports from patients that they were turned away from walk-in vaccination clinics or told that they cannot be booked in for an appointment because they are not yet 14 weeks pregnant.

She said the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists circulated the updated NIAC recommendations at the end of last week and many clinicians have been sharing this advice with patients.

“Some rang the HSE helpline and were told the guidance hadn’t been updated on their system and they physically couldn’t book them in, but there have been mixed reports, some people are getting it at [walk-in] vaccination centres,” she said.

“It’s a bit frustrating because we’re advising people to get it and lots of pregnant women really want it.”

She said there is already vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women and she is concerned that those who have been turned away may not try to make another appointment. 

The latest bulletin on 3 September from the HSE’s National Immunisation Office, which provides training and clinical advice to vaccinators, highlighted the new advice from NIAC. However the bulletin pointed out that the change has not yet been “operationalised in the programme”.

It stated that planning was underway, including changes to the IT system, medicines protocols and training and guidance for vaccinators, as well as the preparation of information material for the public.

However the HSE did not provide a timeline for this implementation. 

Dr O’Dwyer said it would be helpful if the HSE could provide more clarity for clinicians on when the systems will be updated so they can pass this information on to patients.

“When the initial recommendation came for vaccines at 14-36 weeks there was a delay in implementation, but this is only a small change so it would be great if it could be done quickly,” she said.

In a statement to The Journal, the HSE said it is now “following the normal process to operationalise this new guidance, including updating the IT system, clinical guidance and consent information to ensure people availing of the vaccine have the best information possible to make an informed decision”.

“We expect to have these changes finalised by the end of this week and we will then be able to offer all pregnant women a vaccine at that time,” the HSE said.

“The HSE is encouraging pregnant women to take up the Covid-19 vaccine when it is offered, following a discussion with their midwife, GP or obstetrician.”

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    Mute mary carey
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    Oct 1st 2014, 12:31 PM

    I know I’ll get slammed for this, I hope he’ll be in quarantine for 3 wks after arriving back from Monrovia.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 1st 2014, 3:17 PM

    There is nothing unreasonable about that. It’s actually the most common sense measure we can take to protect ourselves. The longest period for Incubation of ebola zaire subtype is 21 days. So to be on the safe side that count should start on the date of entry and they should be released on day 22/23

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Oct 1st 2014, 6:46 PM

    Mary do you know anything about why it is spreading in West Africa? It’s because it’s in the third world with no education, access to information or modern medicine, which means people substituting all that with medieval beliefs, doing stuff like hiding the bodies in their homes in case they get hauled away. None of which would happen here. We are safe. Please relax and stop watching so many movies and / or Fox News!

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    Mute mary carey
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    Oct 1st 2014, 9:06 PM

    Em @neal…. I have a degree in biochemistry, and an MSc in Pharmacology.
    I’m not some hysterical housewife worried about the end of the world because I watched too many Netflix re-runs.
    I am an educated, perceptive individual who made a remark that by the WHO’s standards is reasonable. So take your somewhat snotty attitude and shove it up ur hole!

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    Mute Range Rover P38
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    Oct 1st 2014, 10:03 PM

    Did you read the thing? ffs

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    Mute Range Rover P38
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    Oct 1st 2014, 10:04 PM

    Is ‘hole’ a technical term?

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    Mute Solas Aireáinnach
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    Oct 1st 2014, 12:58 PM

    Journal says we should be worried about Ebola not for ourselves but for Africa. We should be greatly concerned for ourselves. Infected aid-workers & immigrants coming here are real cause for that concern. Aid money, aid workers, we can’t do enough for them but still we dare consider ourselves. It would be “racism” to do so.

    First case of Ebola diagnosed in United States
    http://www.thejournal.ie/ebola-united-states-1699703-Sep2014/

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:44 PM

    The aid workers are getting blood tests before they come back, so they and the doctors coming home are the LEAST at risk of spreading it.
    The odds of someone getting past all the exit screening OR a time fluke like the US guy where he goes to the exit screening without showing up as infected and making it through…the odds of that happening again and on top of that it coming here are incredibly low. There has only been one case of European ebola in human history and it was outside the EU.

    Since there are no direct flights, the only possible route now are refugees or economic migrants. The former coming from that region should be disallowed totally, and everyone else should be subject to a time quarantine from the time they get into the country to the time the virus takes to incubate (assuming infection on the date of entry just to be safe). We should be making a deal with the UK to prevent anyone from the region coming here to begin with.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Oct 1st 2014, 4:20 PM

    “The aid workers are getting blood tests before they come back,”

    No they are not being tested.

    The virus does not show up unless a person is showing symptoms, when the viral load in blood increases. Testing people who are incubating Ebola will give a false negative result, Dr Kent Brantly tested negative at first and then later tested positive when his condition deteriorated.

    “When Specimens Should Be Collected for Ebola Testing at CDC”

    “Ebola virus is detected in blood only after the onset of symptoms, usually fever. It may take up to 3 days after symptoms appear for the virus to reach detectable levels. Virus is generally detectable by real-time RT-PCR from 3-10 days after symptoms appear.”

    10
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    Mute Munster2014
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:03 PM

    I’d be more concerned about these do gooders carrying the virus back to Ireland with them. I personally think that any aid worker who visits the hot zones where this virus exists should not be allowed to travel back to Ireland until the full incubation period has passed. If they do get infected, no repatriation should be made.

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    Mute John Rabbett
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:16 PM

    That’s a bit Harsh, without do gooders we would be in the dark ages when it comes to medicine…

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:38 PM

    ”DO GOODERS?” you mean those incredibly brave, selfless medical professionals to are going over and risking exposure to a nasty and deadly virus to help stop innocent people (including CHILDREN) from dying a horrible death?

    Cop on to yourself mate, those people are the best of what humanity has and they are doing an incredible wonderful thing. They are taking every precaution under the sun to avoid gettin infected. They are wearing full PPP suits most of the time ffsake. They are getting blood tests etc before they come back and any one of them coming back infected have been flown back under a full isolation set up.
    Luckily the rest of us are not cold hearted monsters.

    Do you know what this virus does to you? It turns your organs into pulp and you die of internal bleeding and multiorgan system failure it’s one of the most painful deaths imaginable, you’re ok with that happeing to innocent children and for the rest of humanity to sit there and do nothing to help them?
    It’s easy to say all this from a keyboard when you don’t have to set eyes on the victims of this thing, maybe if you had you would not be so cold.

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    Mute George Grey
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    Oct 1st 2014, 12:37 PM

    We can drop anywhere we want throughout the world, but when it comes to doing something positive western governments are very slow to react. This epidemic will come to haunt us if we do not do the right the right thing. The WHO are screaming out for funds and government personal…..boots on the ground…..to help resolve the crisis. Yest there seems to be little happening. Meanwhile, as we see in this report, thing just get worse. Africa’s plight is the world’s shame.

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    Mute Sakura
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    Oct 1st 2014, 1:18 PM
    53
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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:41 PM

    It’s indeed disheartening and annoying to see reactions like that, I have to admit when I saw that some of them had murdered doctors who came to help them I began to think ‘f—k them maybe we should leave them there to die’ but think about it:

    1. A great deal of those dying are children, and they should not be left with no hope
    2. We should not let the few morons prevent the rest getting help
    3. Most of the conspiracy theories causing those reactions you cite above are coming from western websites some of which are frequented by a few of our nuttier posters on this site.

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    Mute Solas Aireáinnach
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    Oct 1st 2014, 2:56 PM

    George
    €700 million a year in foreign aid, billions of Irish aid to Africa throughout the decades as well as Irish volunteers going over to build their medical, educational & engineering works, contradicts your assertion we are very slow to help these people, we have done nothing but help them & are called racist as a thank you.

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    Mute David Jordan
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    Oct 1st 2014, 4:43 PM

    “the west has been trying to help them for decades. They destroyed the Ebola centre in Liberia within two days. They need to help themselves too.”

    Very true. And ironically, the holding centre at West Point, Monrovia, Liberia, was ransacked because people thought Ebola was a hoax, a hoax that started by the corrupt Liberian government in order to attract foreign aid. They are as sick of foreign aid as we are.

    President Sirleaf of Liberia made 2 of her sons ministers in the government and made another son Vice President of the Central Bank, they then sold 25% their forests to foreign logging companies; Norway recently bribed them not to cut down their forests.

    It was deforestation, human encroachment and the bush meat trade that likely caused this Ebola epidemic.

    “Why Liberians Thought Ebola Was a Government Scam to Attract Western Aid” http://www.thenation.com/article/181618/why-liberians-thought-ebola-was-government-scam-attract-western-aid

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    Mute Jonny Baxter
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    Oct 1st 2014, 6:18 PM

    4. A tiny minority of people is not representative of the whole.
    5. Simplistic thinking is simplistic.

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    Mute Garry Dempsey
    Favourite Garry Dempsey
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    Oct 1st 2014, 3:35 PM

    Block everything from Africa stop shipping containers leaving stop people travelling out of Africa quarantine all of Africa from the rest of the world so it doesn’t become world wide and I look out for myself not Africa…..

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    Mute Jonny Baxter
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    Oct 1st 2014, 6:16 PM

    Ever so slightly disproportionate there Garry.

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    Mute Éire Calling
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    Oct 1st 2014, 8:14 PM

    Just like other African exports such as AIDS, tuberculosis, Leprosy (yes, remember the 2 cases of that last year!) etc all reintroduced/massively increased thanks to wide open mass immigration from the dark continent (and other third world places) Ebola will find its way here eventually to add to the diversity of unwanted diseases in Ireland.

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