Mexico and Brazil do not intend to limit access to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after the UK drug regulator recommended this amid a potential risk of blood clots.
The statements come after the UK Medicines and Medicines Agency (MHRA) recommended that the vaccine should only be used in people over the age of 30 due to its potential for rare blood clots.
The agency said it analyzed 79 reports of rare blood clots after the vaccine, with 19 deaths. Eleven of the 19 who died were under 50, while three were under 30.
Cofepris, the Mexican drug regulator, said it was reviewing the recommendations. However, “it does not intend to limit the use of AstraZeneca vaccines to any age or group,” Reuters reported. Mexico has so far purchased 3.5 million doses of vaccine.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risk and recommended its continued use. The press reported that Brazil administered more than 4 million vaccines and recorded only 47 coagulation events.
The UK recommendation came on the same day that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) safety group concluded that “possible connection“Between the rare blood clots and the vaccine there was.
Concerns about blood clots in a small number of patients led to the suspension of vaccine use last month in more than a dozen countries. Oxford University interrupted a clinical trial testing the vaccine in 300 children between the ages of 6 and 17 while waiting for the MHRA’s opinion on blood clotting reports.
AstraZeneca claimed that its evidence did not find a causal link between its vaccine and blood clotting.