Russian Ministry of Health has excluded breastfeeding women from the list of people with medical contraindications for the Sputnik V vaccine.
On October 15, the current instruction for the Gam-Covid-Vac vaccine was amended, according to the Interfax agency citing the health system press service. The new amendment allows breastfeeding women to take the vaccine even though there is no proven clinical data for this group of people so far. Moreover, there is no clear information if it is possible for the vaccine to penetrate breastfeeding milk.
«Before any breastfeeding women are vaccinated, the proper assessment of risks and possible benefit of that move is needed,» the document by the health system said.
On August 19 the idea to allow breastfeeding women to get vaccinated was proposed by Aleksandr Gintsburg, head of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Gamaleya. He revealed that the research center had applied to the Ministry of Health to get such permission.
On July 20, the World Health Organization updated its recommendations on vaccination as the preliminary data showed that there is no risk for children if their breastfeeding mothers were vaccinated.
Designed in Russia, the Sputnik V vaccine is used in Kazakhstan as well. However, the local health system hasn’t commented yet on the issue. So far, breastfeeding and pregnancy are still among the key contraindications for vaccination in Kazakhstan.
