JEDDAH: Safety fears broke out among the public when the Health Ministry announced it had withdrawn quantities of seasonal flu vaccines. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) released a related confirmation adding that the move was “precautionary".

Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi, a 40-year-old teacher, told Arab News that he and his two sons had received vaccinations a week ago, a day or two before rumors about the vaccine were seen on the Internet.

“After performing the Friday prayers at a mosque here in Taif along with my two sons, I noticed an ambulance parking outside the mosque,” he said. "When we approached the vehicle I was informed that they were giving vaccine shots against seasonal flu. I did not hesitate to get myself and my sons vaccinated.”

While surfing the Internet, Al-Ghamdi was shocked to read the vaccination he and his sons had received was “unsafe".

"I was just dying to hear something from the Health Ministry as what to do in order to save our lives, and how to remove that perilous chemical substance from our bodies,” he said.

Despite the statement of the ministry, Al-Ghamdi said he had not yet made sure that the vaccine was harmless and he would not take the initiative any more to get vaccinated.

“One should not, I guess, hurry to get vaccinations until they are practically and widely proved safe,” he said.

The ministry issued the statement five days ago pointing out that the primary tests on a sample from batch no. P4A331V had not met the safety testing standards of the SFDA. In a precautionary measure, it immediately stopped distributing the whole batch of the vaccine. The ministry noted that all 29 batches sent to hospital and medical centers over the past four months had successfully passed the SFDA’s quality testing.

In its statement, the Health Ministry assured that the suspended quantity had no negative side effects. The measure came “to ensure the effectiveness of the drug to better protect targeted people from the seasonal influenza, not because it could have had an inimical health influence on them,” the statement said.