Mexican doctor hospitalized after receiving COVID-19 vaccine

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican officials have said they are investigating the case of a 32-year-old female doctor hospitalized after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The doctor, whose name has not been released, was admitted to the intensive care unit of a public hospital in the northern state of Nuevo Leon after having seizures, difficulty breathing and a rash.

“The initial diagnosis is encephalomyelitis,” the health ministry said in a statement released Friday evening. Encephalomyelitis is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

The ministry added that the doctor had a history of allergic reactions and said there was no evidence from clinical trials that anyone developed inflammation of the brain after applying the vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech could not be reached immediately for comment.

More than 126,500 people have died from COVID-19 in Mexico. The country began distributing the first set of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers on December 24.