Vaccine halted for under 60s
INOCULATIONS with the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 will be halted for anyone under the age of 60 in Spain.
This means the jab can only administered to people aged 60 to 65. An agreement over the move was forged at a meeting of the inter-territorial health committee on Wednesday.
Health minister Carolina Darias said: “With the information which is available it is recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine is only used in people aged 60 and over.”
The move comes after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) safety committee (PRAC) concluded on Wednesday that ‘unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects’ of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“EMA is reminding healthcare professionals and people receiving the vaccine to remain aware of the possibility of very rare cases of blood clots combined with low levels of blood platelets occurring within two weeks of vaccination,” they stated. “So far, most of the cases reported have occurred in women under 60 years of age within two weeks of vaccination.
Based on the currently available evidence, specific risk factors have not been confirmed. People who have received the vaccine should seek medical assistance immediately if they develop symptoms of this combination of blood clots and low blood platelets.”
The PRAC noted that the blood clots occurred in veins in the brain (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST) and the abdomen (splanchnic vein thrombosis) and in arteries, together with low levels of blood platelets and sometimes bleeding. The committee carried out an in-depth review of 62 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and 24 cases of splanchnic vein thrombosis reported to the EU drug safety database (EudraVigilance) as of March 22 – 18 of which were fatal.
The cases came mainly from reporting systems of the EEA and the UK, where around 25 million people had received the vaccine. According to the EMA, the ‘reported combination of blood clots and low blood platelets is very rare, and the overall benefits of the vaccine in preventing Covid-19 outweigh the risks of side effects’.
They added: “The PRAC has requested new studies and amendments to ongoing ones to provide more information and will take any further actions necessary.”
In Spain the AstraZeneca vaccine has already been given to frontline workers under the age of 60 such as teachers, emergency services personnel and medical staff.
Director of Spain’s medicines agency, Maria Jesús Lamas said that vaccination programmes in the country would now have to be ‘adjusted’.
Sra Darias noted that a decision had still not been taken on whether second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be given to the under 60s who have already received one jab.
She said this would depend on the decision taken within the European Union on how to proceed with the ‘Oxford’ vaccine.
Around two million people in Spain have been received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine so far – most of them aged under 60.
Signs of blood clots
The EMA said people should be aware of the signs of bloods clots and low blood platelets, which should be ‘treated early’.
“Healthcare professionals can help those affected in their recovery and avoid complications,” they stated.
Patients should seek medical assistance immediately if they have the following symptoms –shortness of breath; chest pain; swelling in a leg; persistent abdominal (belly) pain; neurological symptoms, including severe and persistent headaches or blurred vision; or tiny blood spots under the skin beyond the site of injection.