A man over 90 years old who presents a serious case of thrombosis caused by the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 is hospitalized in Mexico City.
According to Dr. Roberto Ovilla Martínez, head of hematology and bone marrow transplants at Hospital Ángeles Lomas, the patient Francisco Aguirre, an engineer by profession, is receiving treatment based on intravenous immunoglobulin that has helped to improve the condition.
This would be the first case of a thrombosis caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine registered in Mexico and in the entire American continent.
Dr. Ovilla Martínez said that on April 2, together with his colleague, Víctor Manuel Vidal, a member of the Naucalpan Satellite Hospital, they diagnosed the patient who is currently hospitalized.
According to the doctor, a graduate from the Autonomous University of Chiapas (UNACH), the 94-year-old patient was inoculated last Wednesday, March 31, with the first dose of the drug developed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca laboratory.
After 42 hours, the patient began to have symptoms such as extreme fatigue and lack of appetite, so his family transferred him to the Corporate Hospital Satélite.
“The first thing that was documented is that his platelets were very low -and this is a first sign of this post-vaccine reaction- then we checked through another test called Dimero D that came out elevated, and relating that he had 48 hours after having been vaccinated, we confirmed that the condition he was presenting was related to the vaccine, so we started treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin,” said Dr. Ovilla Martínez.
He pointed out that with this procedure, which is recommended worldwide for thrombosis, it was possible to “interrupt the process and the platelets began to rise.”
The doctor indicated that the patient could have died from hemorrhage or thrombosis if he had not received care because when he entered the hospital he had about 17,000 platelets when the normal level is 150,000. After the treatment, he registered 75,000 platelets on Thursday, so he estimated that he will be discharged today, Friday.
So far, only cases of thrombosis due to the AstraZeneca vaccine have been diagnosed on the European continent. Given this, the European Medicines Agency ( EMA , for its acronym in English), warned about the use of the vaccine.
Following the warning, Italy, Spain, Belgium, England and the Netherlands announced restrictions on the administration of the immunizer and issued recommendations to the population and medical personnel.
According to the conclusions of the EMA safety committee, “unusual” clots with low platelets “should be included as very rare side effects” of the AstraZeneca vaccine, based on “all currently available evidence.”
A man over 90 years old who presents a serious case of thrombosis caused by the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID . . .
