The UK ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in June 2020.
The British medical regulator said Saturday that of 30 people who suffered from rare blood clots after receiving the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, seven have died.
The UK’s recognition of deaths is because several European countries have discontinued the use of the AstraZeneca shot due to a possible link with blood clots.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement that “Of the 30 reports up to March 24, unfortunately 7 have died.”
The reports of thrombosis, submitted by medics or members of the public through a government website, came after 18.1 million doses of the vaccine had been administered in the country.
Most of the cases (22) were a rare coagulation disorder called cerebral sinus venous thrombosis. In eight cases, people suffered from other types of thrombosis along with a low platelet count, which helps blood clotting.
There were no reports of blood clots from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the UK regulator said, adding that “our in-depth review of these reports is underway.”
But MHRA CEO Dr. June Raine stressed that the benefits far outweigh the risks. “The public should continue to get their vaccine if they are invited to do so,” she said.
Update for Europe expected
Both the MHRA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) say there is still no causal link between the blood clotting case and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But the growing concern has prompted a number of countries to pause the vaccine’s introduction or limit it to older people because of the relatively young age of those who had blood clots.
The Netherlands stopped vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot for people under 60 on Friday after five new cases among younger women, one of whom has died.
Germany has discontinued use of the vaccine for people under 60 after 31 cases of blood clots, most of them among younger and middle-aged women.
A number of 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 has previously declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, is expected to release an updated opinion on the matter on April 7.
It said on Wednesday that there were 62 cases of cerebral sinus vein thrombosis worldwide, of which 44 were in the European Economic Area, including the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
However, this figure did not include all cases in Germany.
More than 9.2 million AstraZeneca shots have been administered in the region.
The EMA said it believes the vaccine is safe and experts have not found any 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 that he initially thought the link between vaccination and blood clots was likely to be a “random association”.
While the evidence in different countries continues to include clusters, “the evidence has now assumed that Oxford-AstraZeneca is actually the cause of these adverse events,” he said.
Nonetheless, the unvaccinated risk of dying from Covid is “significantly higher,” he said.
An AstraZeneca spokeswoman told AFP that patient safety is the “top priority”.
Regulators from the UK, the EU and the World Health Organization have concluded that the benefits “significantly outweigh the risks for all adult age groups,” she said.
AstraZeneca said after US efficiency studies last month that its vaccine is 76 percent effective at preventing the disease. It also said data for the EU and UK did not show an increased risk of blood clots.
The UK has delivered more than 31 million first vaccine doses, using both the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech shots. People cannot choose which one to get.
The UK ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in June 2020 and supported its development. It also ordered 30 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the same year.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV contributors and was published from a syndicated feed.)