London (AFP)
The scientific committee overseeing the anti-Covid vaccination campaign in the United Kingdom, the JCVI, recommended on Wednesday to limit the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those over 30 years old when possible, after the reporting of 79 rare cases of clots blood, including 19 deaths.
"Adults between the ages of 18 and 29, who do not have a comorbidity that puts them at higher risk of a severe form of Covid-19 disease, should be offered another Covid-19 vaccine rather than the vaccine. AstraZeneca, when such an alternative is available, ”Prof. Wei Shen Lim, JCVI, told a press conference.
He stressed that the committee did not recommend stopping vaccination in any age group.
Several European countries have suspended the use of the vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca under a certain age due to reports of blood clots among those vaccinated.
The British drug regulator, the MHRA, said it had seen 19 deaths of people who received the Covid Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, out of a total of 79 cases of blood clots identified and more than 20 million doses administered.
These cases concern 51 women and 28 men aged 18 to 79, said June Raine, director of the MHRA, ensuring that the benefits remained greater than the risks for "the vast majority" of the population.
The link between this vaccine and rare cases of blood clots is a "strong possibility but more work is needed to establish without a shadow of a doubt that the vaccine caused this side effect", which remains "extremely weak", she added.
According to Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, this new recommendation should not affect the progress of the vaccination campaign in the United Kingdom, which aims to give a first dose of vaccine to all adults by the end. July.
It could cause "slight delays" or cause longer trips to be vaccinated, he conceded.
On Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that blood clots should be listed as a "very rare" side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19, while estimating that the benefit / risk balance remains "positive".
© 2021 AFP