What is thrombocytopenia? Rare Blood Disorders Reported After COVID Vaccines

More than two dozen cases of thrombocytopenia, a rare blood disorder, have been reported in people who have received COVID vaccines in the United States. However, a link between COVID vaccines and the disease that affects platelets has not been proven.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), jointly managed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Food and Drug Administration, records any potential side effects that people experience after receiving a vaccine. .

As of the end of January, 32 cases of decreased platelet count, 14 cases of thrombocytopenia and 11 cases of immune thrombocytopenia have been recorded in people who received the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine in the United States.

More than 43 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the United States

Last month, a man in Florida died after developing thrombocytopenia days after being vaccinated against COVID. Gregory Michael, 56, a Miami-based doctor, started showing symptoms of a form of the disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) a few days after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. He died two weeks later from a brain hemorrhage.

Newsweek contacted Pfizer and Moderna for comment on the cases. Pfizer said The New York Times “At this time, we have not been able to establish a causal association with our vaccine” and that he was collecting relevant information to share with the FDA.

Moderna told the newspaper that it is “continuously monitoring the safety of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine using all data sources.”

Experts have already said Newsweek that rare side effects may appear as vaccines are deployed in large populations, but the benefits far outweigh the risks.

what thrombocytopenia?

Thrombocytopenia is a rare disease which lowers the number of platelets in your blood.

Platelets, also called thrombocytes, are cells that are essential for the formation of blood clots, a process that prevents you from continually bleeding from the site of an injury.

According to the Platelet Disorder Support Association (PDSA), approximately 100,000 people in the United States have it.

What causes thrombocytopenia?

Thrombocytopenia can run in families. However, it can also be triggered by an immune response to infection, disease, or medication. In this case, the condition is known as immune thrombocytopenia or idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).

ETC causes white blood cells, which create infection-fighting antibodies, to attack platelets in your body instead.

What are the symptoms of thrombocytopenia?

Symptoms of thrombocytopenia include bruising above the bleeding areas under the skin, flat red spots, and blood in your stool or urine.

However, these symptoms may not appear until your platelet count has fallen to dangerously low levels.

A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter blood, but symptoms can only appear when the platelet count drops below 10,000 per microliter.

In this case, bleeding or bruising may occur without an obvious cause.