(Adds reports from British media about reported deaths)
April 1 (Reuters) - British regulators on Thursday said they
have identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events after the use
of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, 25 more than the
agency previously reported.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
(MHRA) said it had received no such reports of clotting events
following use of the vaccine made by BioNTech SE and
Pfizer Inc.
On Friday, the medicine regulator told the Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/2e52a5b0-29b9-4c7e-8cfb-97bf8edea865
and The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/02/covid-further-rare-blood-clot-cases-found-in-oxford-astrazeneca-recipients
that seven recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine have died
after registering the rare blood clotting events. Reuters was
not immediately available to confirm the figure from MHRA after
office hours.
MHRA, European Medicines Agency and the World Health
Organization have reiterated that benefits of the vaccine in the
prevention of COVID-19 far outweigh any possible risk of blood
clots.
Some countries are restricting use of the AstraZeneca
vaccine while others have resumed inoculations, as
investigations into reports of rare, and sometimes severe, blood
clots continue.
On March 18, the UK medicines regulator said that there had
been five cases of a rare brain blood clot among 11 million
administered shots.
On Thursday, it put the count at 22 reports of cerebral
venous sinus thrombosis, an extremely rare brain clotting
ailment, and 8 reports of other clotting events associated with
low blood platelets out of a total of 18.1 million doses given.
(Reporting By Peter Henderson, Julie Steenhuysen, and Aakriti
Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Daniel Wallis)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
