The United Kingdom, in June 2020, ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The British medical regulator said on Saturday that of the 30 people who suffered rare blood clots after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, seven have died.
British recognition of the deaths comes when several European countries have stopped using the AstraZeneca puncture for a possible link to blood clots.
The UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement that “Of the 30 reports up to and including March 24, sadly 7 have died”.
Reports of thrombosis, submitted by doctors or members of the public through a government website, came after 18.1 million doses of the vaccine were administered in the country.
Most cases (22) were a rare coagulation condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Eight cases suffered other types of thrombosis combined with low levels of blood platelets, which aid in the formation of blood clots.
There were no reports of blood clots from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the British regulator said, adding that “our thorough review of these reports is ongoing”.
But MHRA executive director June Raine stressed that the benefits far outweighed the risks. “The public should continue to take the vaccine when invited,” he said.
European update planned
Both the MHRA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) say that no causal link has yet been established between the case of blood clotting and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But growing concerns have caused several countries to have to pause the launch of the vaccine or limit it to the elderly because of the relatively young age of those who suffered blood clots.
On Friday, the Netherlands stopped vaccines with the AstraZeneca puncture for children under 60 after five new cases in younger women, one of whom died.
Germany has suspended vaccine use for children under 60 after 31 cases of blood clots, mostly among younger and middle-aged women.
Some other countries, including France, have imposed similar age restrictions, while Denmark and Norway have suspended all use of the vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which, like the World Health Organization, previously declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, is expected to announce updated advice on the issue on 7 April.
He said on Wednesday that there had been 62 cases worldwide of cerebral venous thrombosis, 44 of them in the European Economic Area, which includes the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
However, this figure did not include all cases in Germany.
More than 9.2 million AstraZeneca spikes have been administered in the region.
The EMA said it believes the vaccine is safe and that experts have not found specific risk factors such as age, gender or medical history.
“Weight of evidence”
Paul Hunter, a medical microbiologist at the British University of East Anglia, told AFP he had initially thought the link between vaccination and blood clots would likely be a “random association”.
As cluster groups occur in separate countries, “the weight of the evidence is looking at whether Oxford-AstraZeneca is the cause of these adverse events,” he said.
However, the risk for the unvaccinated to die of Covid is “substantially higher,” he said.
An AstraZeneca spokeswoman told AFP that patient safety is their “top priority”.
Regulatory bodies in the UK, the EU and the World Health Organization have concluded that the benefits “significantly outweigh the risks in all age groups of adults,” he said.
AstraZeneca said last month after U.S. efficiency trials that its vaccine is 76% effective in preventing the disease. It was also said that EU and UK data did not show an increased risk of blood clots.
The UK has administered more than 31 million initial doses of vaccine, using both Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. People can’t choose which one to get.
The United Kingdom, in June 2020, ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and supported its development. He also ordered 30 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine the same year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)