New Telegraph

NPHCDA: No reported cases of adverse reactions from AstraZeneca vaccine

 

Appolonia Adeyemi

 

Against the background that several European nations have suspended the use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clot incidents, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has clarified that no such reactions have been reported from administering the vaccine in Nigeria.
The Agency, which is currently saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the country, made this known on its twitter handle on Thursday.
It stated: “We are aware of precautionary concerns that have been raised regarding one specific batch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, namely ABV5300.
“We understand that investigations are being conducted to determine if the batch is in any way linked to an observed side effect. While we await the outcome of the investigations, it is important to clearly state that Nigeria did not receive any doses from the batch of vaccines which is at issue.”
According to a report in the ‘BMJ’, Denmark temporarily suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a precautionary move after reports of the blood clots and one death.
However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the United Kingdom (UK)’s regulatory body have said that there is no indication that vaccination is linked to the thromboembolic events.
Subsequently, seven other countries—Norway, Iceland, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Latvia—have also suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The reported stated that the decisions were a further setback for Europe’s vaccination campaign, which has struggled to pick up speed, partly because of delays in delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On its part, the Danish Health Authority said that one person in Denmark had died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and that it would suspend the drug’s use for two weeks while the case was investigated.
“It is important to point out that we have not terminated the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine—we are just pausing its use,” said the Danish Health Authority’s Director, Soren Brostrøm.

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