A rare blood clot caused by AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine poses a significant risk of death

New Delhi: According to a new study, an unusual blood clot disease linked to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine poses a high risk of death.
Researchers in the United Kingdom discovered that, while the illness – vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) – happens in only one out of every 50,000 instances, individuals who do acquire it have a very poor probability of surviving.
The study, which was based on 220 confirmed and probable instances in UK hospitals between March 22 and June 6, found that 23% of individuals who developed the clot died.

In individuals with a severely low platelet count, the probability of death rises drastically to 73%. Even young and healthy people have died as a result of the illness.

The Guardian quoted Dr. Sue Pavord, consultant hematologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as saying, “It’s important to highlight that this type of reaction to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccination is quite rare.”

Dr. Pavord, who is also the lead author of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, stated that blood clots can be “devastating” for patients who get them.

 

“It often affects young, otherwise healthy vaccine recipients and has a high mortality. It is particularly dangerous when the patient has a low platelet count and bleeding in the brain,” she said.

In the 220 cases studied, ages ranged from 18 to 79 years and about 85 percent of patients were under the age of 60.

However, Pavord added that “this does not mean the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should not be given to the under-60s” as the benefits far outweigh the risk which is very rare.

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