Coronavirus: Vaccine roll-out faces turmoil

After making steady progress in recent weeks, Cyprus’ vaccination roll-out faces turmoil as health officials move to shore up public confidence pending clarification over whether the death of a woman from a thrombotic episode was linked to the AstraZeneca jab.

The health ministry has said there is no evidence so far that the vaccine was to blame for the death and reiterated the importance of vaccines to prevent a fourth coronavirus surge.

It has taken pride in the fact that Cyprus has managed to administer at least one jab to close to 50 per cent of the population, attributing the much-improved epidemiological situation to the roll-out.

However, the woman’s death has prompted concern and confusion, compounded by the fact that different countries in the EU implement different age criteria for the specific vaccine.

“It has not been proven that the low platelet thromboembolic episode in the case of the 39-year-old woman is associated with the vaccination,” the health ministry said in a statement issued after the death was announced of Paphos-based model Stephanie Dubois on Monday.

“As the number of vaccinations increases, the chances of seeing rare side effects from all vaccines are higher and we should all be prepared for this,” the health ministry’s announcement added.

One party, Solidarity, said that despite the lack of proof of a link, the AZ vaccine should not be administered to women under 45 while some doctors have indicated that this could help overcome vaccine hesitancy.

Amid calls for Cyprus to follow the example of countries such as the UK and Greece and not administer the specific vaccine to younger people, the health ministry said it was sticking to the European Medicine Agency’s recommendations, which have no age-related restrictions.

Acting head of the pharmaceutical services Elena Panayiotopoulou told CNA on Tuesday “the vaccines are safe” as they have been approved for emergency use by the EMA. “If something doubtful happened and there was any suspicion, surely it [the agency] would definitely stop the specific vaccine.”

Members of the health ministry’s epidemiological team were also due to discuss the issue on Tuesday night.

Dubois received the AstraZeneca vaccine on May 6 and reported symptoms of fever and exhaustion within two weeks. After testing negative for coronavirus, she was admitted to the Nicosia general hospital and died after suffering a brain haemorrhage on Friday according to close friends of her family.

State health services organisation Okypy confirmed her death but did not provide any further details.

Health authorities have referred Dubois’ medical report along with four other thrombotic episode cases to the EMA which will investigate the incident along with other similar suspicious incidents across Europe and conclude if it was linked to the vaccine.

Last week the EMA advised that a second dose of the AZ vaccine should not be administered to patients who developed blood clots with low blood platelets after receiving the first.

“Thromboembolic events occur in the general population without vaccination,” the health ministry said. Side effects occur with all medicine and pharmaceuticals, it added.

Head of the state doctors’ union Pasyki haematologist Sotiris Koumas said that after vaccinations clots can appear in unusual locations on the body. “This is a new mechanism usually presented in young people after vaccination due to immune system activation,” he told CyBC.

According to Koumas, one person per 100,000 people who receive the coronavirus jab will present clots while in the group of people aged 40 and younger the odds double to two per 100,000, while symptoms are more common among women.

Any symptoms that might be linked to the vaccine should be reported to doctors. These may include a rash, swelling in the lower limbs, persistent stomach pain or headache, shortness of breath which persist in resting position, eyesight problems and other neurological symptoms including numbing of the limbs, Koumas said.

When diagnosed early, thrombosis may be treated successfully while according to the limited data provided, the risk for thrombosis appears to be lower with the second dose of the vaccine, Koumas said.

He added that he supported a review of age groups for the specific vaccine.

Meanwhile, the vaccination programme could face delays if health professionals go ahead with a threatened work stoppage unless the ministry pays them for months of unpaid overtime.

Speaking to Astra radio, state nurses’ union Pasyno spokesman Theodoros Petelis said that about 80 health professionals across Cyprus have “voluntarily” worked overtime at vaccination centres for months and are still expecting to be paid for those extra hours.

As of last week, Cyprus had administered 504,008 vaccination doses of which 356,376 concerned the first dose, translating to 48.2 per cent of the eligible population, while another 147,632 people, 20 per cent, completed their vaccination.