Lung doctor shows risks of going unvaccinated for elderly Thais
Amid concern over the low rate of Covid-19 vaccination among Thailand’s elderly, a lung specialist has revealed stark evidence of the dangers for unvaccinated old people.
Dr Manoon Leechawengwongs posted a comparison on Facebook of two cases of Covid-19 in elderly patients.
The first patient had received two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, while the second patient was unvaccinated.
The fully vaccinated patient is 74 years old and has hypertension as well as an enlarged prostate gland. He suffered fever, coughing, and a sore throat for three days and tested positive for Covid-19 on April 3. However, his oxygen saturation and lung X-ray were normal.
He took four capsules of Molnupiravir every 12 hours and had recovered well enough to return home after five days.
After two weeks of monitoring at home, he was given another lung X-ray and the result was normal.
The unvaccinated patient is 77 years old and was healthy and strong with no congenital diseases. He suffered coughing and phlegm for four days and tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11.
His oxygen saturation and lung X-ray were normal. His erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were also normal.
He started taking Molnupiravir on April 12 and his symptoms improved after five days, with no side effects from the drug.
However, when he stopped taking Molnupiravir on April 18, he developed a fever and a cough on the same day. His ESR and hs-CRP level increased but his oxygen saturation and lung X-ray were normal. He finally recovered after another five days of treatment with steroids.
Manoon cited the comparison as evidence that receiving only two doses of vaccine is far safer than being unvaccinated.
Vaccination helped protect elderly patients against severe symptoms and pneumonia, he added.
He also said that Thai doctors should stop prescribing Favipiravir for severely ill Covid-19 patients as there are better medicines available.
According to government data, about one in six elderly people remain unvaccinated despite being among the group at highest risk of severe symptoms and death from Covid-19.
