Thalang District Chief Bancha Thanu-in and Thalang District Public Health Chief Sathaporn Wachasat lead a meeting at Baan Sakhu School yesterday afternoon (Aug 31) to meet the girl, Nong Gaew, and her parents Kajornpong and Jeeranan Kruea-in.
Joining the meeting were hospital staff and teachers.
Nong Gaew’s mother, Ms Jeeranan, explained that the hair loss began after her daughter’s second COVID vaccination, received at the vaccination station set up at Phuket airport, in July.
Nong Gaew suffered no adverse reactions to her first COVID vaccination in May, Ms Jeeranan noted.
Both COVID vaccinations received by Nong Gaew were of the Pfizer vaccine, she added.
“By the end of July, hair was falling out. No one in our family has shown signs of a reaction to a COVID vaccination and hair loss is not common in the family. Not hair loss like this,” she said.
Nong Gaew had been taken to a specialist dermatologist and presented to hospital doctors, but no answers had been forthcoming, Ms Jeeranan said.
“The dermatologist just said that it was a patchy hair loss,” she noted.
“I don’t know if this is about the vaccine or not, but normally everything with Nong Gaew is healthy,” Ms Jeeranan said.
Nong Gaew’s father, Mr Kajornpong, explained that after Nong Gaew had received her second vaccination, most people in their home, including Nong Gaew, contracted COVID-19. All of them recovered safely. However, that is when the hair loss began.
Ms jeeranan continued, “After recovering from COVID, her hair started falling out heavily. I’m very stressed right now. I feel pity that my daughter has to wear a hood to go to school.”
Thalang District Sheriff Mr Bancha arranged for doctors at Thalang Hospital to treat Nong Gaew as a special case and do their utmost to identify the cause and take steps to prevent further hair loss.
“Let the doctors diagnose what is the cause and how to treat it,” he said.
Thalang District Health Chief Dr Sathaporn said doctors at Thalang Hospital will make arrangements for Nong Gaew to see doctors at Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town, the main government hospital on the island.
Previous reports of hair loss as a result of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination have been either detracted from or dismissed by Phuket officials.
In November last year, a 41-year-old saleswoman at a motorcycle dealership in Phuket Town blamed her third COVID vaccination, a "booster" jab of AstraZeneca, for severe hair loss.
The Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) responded by saying that the woman, Mananya ‘Ann’ Phuekpoom, needed to consult with specific doctors who can run thorough tests to determine whether the vaccine was responsible.
Dr Salasak Loei Kul of the PPHO noted that the woman had been diagnosed with anemia which coincided with her receiving the three injections.
However, he added that further tests were necessary to determine the exact cause of her hair loss and that her case had been noted by the PPHO and is under investigation.
The result of the investigation was never made public.
The woman’s plea for assistance followed Bodin Saeliang, 19, a first-year vocational school student in Phuket, claiming that his extreme hair loss started after he received his second injection of the Sinovac vaccine.
Mr Bodin went public with his claim just three days earlier, on Nov 17, 2021.