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ZURICH, June 7 (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency
(EMA) on Monday pushed guidance for doctors not to use the blood
thinner heparin to treat rare blood clots and low blood
platelets in people who got AstraZeneca's or Johnson &
Johnson's COVID-19 shots.
Europe's drugs regulator, seeking to ensure proper
treatment, highlighted the International Society on Thrombosis
and Haemostasis (ISTH) interim guidance. In April, the ISTH
concluded "management should be initiated with non-heparin
anticoagulation upon suspicion" of vaccine-linked clotting and
low platelets.
The EMA move underscoring the ISTH guidelines is in line
with recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and Centers for Disease Control, which have issued strong
warnings against using heparin for such cases, on the grounds it
appeared to make the condition worse.
Alternative anti-coagulants include fondaparinux or
argatroban.
According to the ISTH guidelines, once a case of
vaccine-induced clotting and low platelets has been confirmed,
doctors should continue with non-heparin anticoagulants, as well
as consider giving high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin, which
has also been recommended by doctors at Germany's Greifswald
University to help counteract the rare but potentially deadly
side-effects.
As of May 28, A total of 316 cases of rare blood clots with
low platelets have been recorded in adults who received
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in the European Economic
Area, an executive of the region's drug regulator said.
The EMA has maintained that overall benefits of both J&J's
and AstraZeneca's vaccines outweigh any risks posed by them,
though some countries have either limited those who receive
these particular shots to older age groups, or, in the case of
Denmark and Norway, halted the shots completely.
Doctors worldwide are still investigating the possible
causes of the clotting and low platelets, with some narrowing in
on the vaccines' viral vector that transports the genetic
information to the cells for making coronavirus proteins that
kick off the immune response.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Toby Chopra and
Bernadette Baum)
