In second place
Sputnik-V has become the second most popular coronavirus vaccine in the world
Maria Azarova, Naked Science
The Sputnik-V vaccine, developed at the Russian Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Academician N. F. Gamalei, turned out to be the world's second most popular drug for the prevention of Covid-19. According to the official Twitter account, Sputnik-V has already been approved for use in 45 countries.
In the first place is the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University (approved in 49 countries). Surprisingly, because at first this drug was criticized for insufficient effectiveness. On the third line (43 countries) was a vaccine from the American Pfizer and the German startup BioNTech, which was so praised in the West. CanSino, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Chinese drugs from the American Moderna were not included in the top 3. The list is rounded out by a single-component vector Ad26, using a non-replicating genetically modified human adenovirus, from Johnson & Johnson.
(The drawings at the end of the text are not for the faint of heart. It's better not to look at them too impressionable – VM.)
In addition to Russia, Sputnik-V has received permits in recent months in Belarus, Argentina, Serbia, Bolivia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Pakistan, Iran, Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Lebanon, Republika Srpska, Myanmar, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana, Egypt, Honduras, Guatemala, Vietnam, Moldova, Slovakia, Angola, Djibouti, Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka, Laos and Iraq.
A month ago, the results of the third phase of the Sputnik-V trials appeared in the respected medical journal The Lancet. The effectiveness was 91.6% three weeks after the first dose, and in people over 60 years of age this indicator was 91.8%. Since no one in the vaccine group was seriously ill (there were 20 cases in the placebo group), scientists concluded that Sputnik-V protects 100% from severe forms of Covid-19. At any time after the first injection and before the second, the estimated effectiveness of the Russian vaccine was at the level of 73.1% – no other similar drug showed such results.
Among the other advantages of Sputnik-V is that it was developed on the basis of two vectors of recombinant adenovirus types, that is, a virus in which the genes responsible for the development of infection are "cut out". The drug can be transported and stored in thermocontainers with dry ice, refrigerator bags and refrigerated trucks. At first, the required temperature of transportation was set at minus 18 degrees Celsius and below, but then the Ministry of Health simplified the requirements: now the vaccine can be stored at plus two to eight degrees.
No serious reactions were detected after vaccination with Sputnik-V, except for pain and redness at the injection site, headache, fatigue, as well as flu-like symptoms (for example, temperature). At the same time, some vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna had unpleasant side effects at the testing stages: not only banal headache and fever, but also – unexpectedly – temporary paralysis of a part of the face (Bell's palsy).
Recently, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital announced skin reactions that manifest themselves some time after vaccination with mRNA-1273 from the American company Moderna.
So, during the third stage of clinical trials of the drug, delayed hypersensitivity of the skin was observed in some vaccinated patients (from four days to 11 days after the first dose, on average, the symptom appeared on the eighth day and disappeared after a week).
According to experts, the cause of extensive redness around the injection site, sometimes accompanied by itching and pain, has not yet been precisely determined. Most likely, this is an allergic reaction.
Most patients were treated with ice and antihistamines, although some required corticosteroids, and one was mistakenly prescribed antibiotics. According to the researchers, doctors should be prepared that such complaints will come from those who have been vaccinated. "Delayed skin hypersensitivity can be confused by both clinicians and patients with a skin infection," said Erica Shenoy, MD, deputy head of the hospital's infection control department, co–author of the report. "These types of reactions, however, are not considered infectious, so they cannot be treated with antibiotics."
In the pictures: on the left – a reaction to an injection with the mRNA-1273 vaccine from the American company Moderna; on the right – temporary paralysis of a part of the face (Bell's palsy) after a drug from Pfizer.
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