MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican authorities say they are studying the case of a 32-year-old woman who was hospitalized after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The doctor, whose name has not been released, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a public hospital in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, after suffering convulsions, shortness of breath and a skin rash.
“The initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis,” the health ministry said in a statement released Friday night. Encephalomyelitis is an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
The ministry added that the doctor has a history of allergic reactions and said there was no evidence from clinical trials that anyone had developed an inflammation of the brain after the vaccine was applied.
Pfizer and BioNTech could not be reached for comment immediately.
More than 126,500 people have died from COVID-19 in Mexico. The country began distributing the first round of COVID-19 vaccines to health workers on December 24th.
Reporting by Noe Torres; Written by Laura Gottesdiener; Montage by Andrea Ricci