The government, on Tuesday, clarified that Covid vaccine-related blood clotting incidents are almost negligible in India.
Blood-clotting cases, post-vaccination, are nearly 30 times lower than what was reported in certain European countries in the past where AstraZeneca vaccine was administered, said VK Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog. The same vaccine is produced in India by Serum Institute of India and is being marketed as Covishield.
FAQ clarification
The clarification in the form of Frequently Asked Questions on Covid comes amid fear among students and employees seeking to undertake foreign travel who are left with the option of vaccinating themselves with Covishield only, which has so far been approved by World Health Organisation for Emergency Use Listing (EUL). Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is yet to get the green signal from the WHO.
“A few cases of this complication did come to the fore, particularly with regard to AstraZeneca Vaccine. This complication occurred in Europe where this risk was seen to be present to some extent in their younger population due to their lifestyle, body and genetic structure,” said Paul, while adding this data has been systematically examined in India and found that such blood-clotting incidents are almost negligible here, so there is no need not worry about it.
Meanwhile, Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), said: “This side-effect, named as vaccine- induced Thrombosis or Thrombocytopenia, is very rare in India, and is found to occur in a much lesser proportion than in Europe.
“Hence, there is no need to be scared of this. Treatments also are available for this, which can be adopted, if diagnosed early.”