A medical worker prepares a dose of COVID-19 Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine at a vaccination center in Antwerp, Belgium, March 18, 2021. REUTERS / Yves Herman
Australia on Friday reported its first blood clot death to a recipient of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shooting (AZN.L), and the regulator said there was a likely link between the 48-year-old woman’s death and the vaccine.
Her was the third example of the occurrence of rare blood clots in people who received the vaccine in Australia. The other two are recovering well, added Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
He said he was “carefully reviewing” similar cases in Australia.
The woman from New South Wales received the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 8, the day the government announced that the Pfizer (PFE.N) vaccine would be given preferably to patients under 50, delaying the inoculation schedule. Read more
In the absence of an alternative cause of the clot it developed, the Australian Vaccine Safety Investigation Group (VSIG) “believed that a causal link to vaccination should be assumed at this time,” the TGA said.
VSIG held a meeting late Friday, following news of the woman’s death.
TGA said her case was complicated by underlying medical conditions, including diabetes, “as well as some atypical features.”
To date, there have been at least 885,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines given in Australia, equivalent to a frequency of blood clots in every 295,000 cases, TGA said.
“The total number … so far has not been higher than the expected background rate for the more common type of blood clots,” he said.
The UK Regulatory Authority for Medicines and Healthcare Products has concluded from an analysis of cases reported in the UK that the overall risk of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis – a rare blood clot in the brain – was around 1 in 250,000 who receive the vaccine. .
Australia has reported over 22,000 community-transmitted COVID-19 cases and 909 deaths. Read more
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