By Adedapo Adesanya
Three countries; Denmark, Norway and Iceland on Thursday temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine over concerns about patients developing post-jab blood clots.
Denmark was first to announce its suspension, explaining in a statement issued from its health department that the action was taken “following reports of serious cases of blood clots” among people who had received the vaccine.
It stressed the move was precautionary and that “it has not been determined, at the time being, that there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots.”
According to Europe’s Medicine, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as of yesterday, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area.
Norway’s health authorities said Thursday they were suspending the use of the vaccine as a precaution following Denmark’s decision to do so over fears of a link to blood clots.
“We are pausing the AstraZeneca vaccination in Norway,” the director of infection prevention and control at the National Institute of Health, Mr Geir Bukholm said.
“We are waiting for more information to see if there is a link between the vaccine and this blood clot case,” he further said.
Icelandic health authorities are also temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca jab while EMA researches whether there is a causal link between the drug and blood clots reported among recipients outside of Iceland.
In a briefing in the country’s capital Reykjavík, Chief Epidemiologist, Mr Þórólfur Guðnason stated that the suspension will likely only last a few days until more information is received from the EMA, which so far does not consider there to be a causal link.
This development is coming after Austria announced on Monday that it had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a 49-year-old nurse died of “severe blood coagulation problems” days after receiving an anti-Covid shot.
Four other European countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg, have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisted of one million jabs.
AstraZeneca, an Anglo-Swedish company, which developed the vaccine with Oxford University, defended the safety of its product.
“The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in phase III clinical trials and peer-reviewed data confirms the vaccine has been generally well-tolerated,” a spokesman for the group said, according to AFP.
Britain, which is spearheading an aggressive vaccination programme, has also defended it, calling it both safe and effective.
Nigeria is among the countries using the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab. The country commenced usage and deployment of the drugs last week despite South Africa suspending the use because of some concerns.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, frontline health workers and others have received the jab with more scheduled to receive in the next few weeks.
Aduragbemi Omiyale