MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican authorities said they are studying the case of a 32-year-old female doctor who was hospitalized after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
The doctor, whose name has not been disclosed, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a public hospital in the northern state of Nuevo Leon after suffering seizures, respiratory problems and a rash.
“The initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis,” the health ministry said in a statement released Friday evening. Encephalomyelitis is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
The ministry added that the doctor has a history of allergic reactions and said there is no evidence from clinical trials that someone developed inflammation of the brain after the administration of the vaccine.
Pfizer and BioNTech were not immediately available for comment.
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 professionals on December 24.
Reporting by Noe Torres; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Andrea Ricci