Paraguay: out of caution, they stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine

Paraguayan health authorities have decided to suspend for “caution” the use of the coronavirus vaccine from the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca in people under 55 years old, while calling for people vaccinated with the first dose of this drug to calm down , local media reported.

In an administrative circular, the Directorate of the National Program for Immunopreventable Diseases and the Expanded Program of Vaccinations (PAI) ordered the suspension of the administration of this inoculant in persons under 55 years of age and in persons with conditions and pathologies predisposing to thromboembolic events, reported Paraguayan news agency IP.

The director of the EPI, Héctor Castro, asked those who received the first dose to reassure themselves and explained that they will be subjected to “close pharmacovigilance” while awaiting scientific evidence to define the next step. “I want to ask my colleagues to be calm. The association with thrombotic or thromboembolic phenomena is absolutely rare in the number of vaccines offered, but as a precaution, we must now stop their application “, he expressed.

In this sense, he stressed that the vaccines will be intended for areas where they can be more useful and safer, such as the elderly, to complete the scheme later, with both doses. “What we want is what is best for the people and we are working on it, this week we will decide what to do,” Castro said.

According to the PAI circular, health authorities await final decisions in this regard from regulatory bodies such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This institution said that clots are a “very rare” side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine and encouraged its continued use, as only 222 cases of thrombosis were detected after 34 million injections.

Source: Chronicle

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