Researchers at the teaching hospital Greifswald in northern Germany said on Friday they had discovered the cause of the unusual blood clotting found in some recipients of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported. (NDR).
Research showed how the vaccine caused rare thrombosis in the brain in a small number of patients.
The discovery means that a targeted treatment can be offered to those who suffer from similar clotting, using a very common drug.
The success was the result of cooperation between Greifswald Hospital, the state health regulator at the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), and doctors in Austria: a nurse died of a thrombosis in the brain after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca puncture.
The researchers stressed that treatment would only be possible in patients where blood clots appear, rather than as a preventative treatment.
The information has been shared with hospitals across Europe.
Symptoms such as continuous headache, dizziness, or impaired vision that last more than three days after vaccination need further medical checkups, according to the German Association for Research on Thrombosis and Hemostasis in a statement on the latest findings.
Greifswald’s findings have not yet been published in a scientific journal and have therefore not been reviewed by independent experts. The Paul-Ehrlich Institute in Germany is now studying the work of scientists.
AstraZeneca returns to the track in Europe
Germany, along with several other EU member states, suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday after reports of unusual blood clots.
On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said there were no proven links between the vaccine and clots, according to the information they had. They also claimed that the benefits of the puncture outweighed all possible risks.
In response to the updated guidelines, Germany was due to start vaccinations with the British-Swedish outbreak on Friday.
On Thursday, Germany had administered more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Katja Sterzik of DW contributed to this article.