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(Adds details, comment from WHO Europe director)
ZURICH, April 15 (Reuters) - Denmark is examining options
for sharing AstraZeneca's vaccines with poorer nations
after it halted use of the shots over concerns over rare blood
clots, the World Health Organization Europe head said on
Thursday.
Denmark this week became the first country to stop using
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine altogether, as European officials
continue to investigate dozens of reports of very rare blood
clots combined with low platelet counts that have arisen in the
bloc, as well as Britain.
The WHO, which along with Britain and the European Medicines
Agency continue to recommend AstraZeneca's shot on the grounds
that the benefits outweigh the risks, has been pushing countries
not to hoard vaccines that they are not using.
The lion's share of vaccines distributed globally, so far,
have gone to wealthier nations.
"I did have this conversation with Dr. Soren Brostrom,
director general of the Danish (Health Authority) yesterday and
I understand that the ministry of foreign affairs of Denmark is
ready to, or looking already into options, for sharing
AstraZeneca vaccines with poorer countries," WHO Europe Director
Hans Kluge told reporters.
WHO officials stopped short of criticising Denmark's move to
halt use of AstraZeneca's vaccine, saying every nation should
have the flexibility to make decisions about their vaccination
programs, based on their rates of vaccination, infection and
hospitalisation.
Denmark's Brostrom has said his country had come far in
inoculating the elderly population most at risk of contracting a
serious form of COVID-19, and that younger groups were at lower
risk of complications from the disease. That had to be weighed
against the possible vaccine side effects, he said.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Alison
wiilliams)
