How To Know You Have A Thrombosis After Getting The Coronavirus Vaccine

AstraZeneca's vaccine remains under scrutiny for unusual thrombosis in people who have received the vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical company and Oxford University.

Although  the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has concluded that the vaccine is safe, effective and can continue to be administered to the population, many countries have preferred to place limitations after confirming that thrombi should be considered very rare adverse effects of this drug.

This is the case of Spain, which has just decided to limit vaccination with Astrazeneca to people over 60 years old, since most of the thrombotic events caused by the vaccine have been in women between 20 and 60. Thus, the Spanish Ministry of Health has decided to modify a criterion that has caused great uncertainty among the population and public administrations, and the use of this vaccine has been suspended on several occasions.

Also in Spain, many continue to look askance at a vaccine that in February began to be applied only to people under 55 years old because the clinical trials did not provide enough data on its efficacy in the elderly, and now it will be applied only to people over 60.

What is thrombosis? How many cases have been linked to AstraZeneca?

The EMA has recognized the link between AstraZeneca's vaccine and rare cases of thrombosis after 222 cases were reported among the 25 million people vaccinated with this drug in the European Union, including Great Britain.

Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot, called a thrombus, in one or more veins with the capacity to obstruct them and cause lesions of greater or lesser severity, and can even cause death by hemorrhage.

Among the cases detected, some very atypical thrombi have been reported, such as cerebral and abdominal thrombosis, which have been related to the AstraZeneca vaccine, while others more common among the population, such as venous thrombosis in the legs and pulmonary embolisms, are more difficult to relate to the vaccine.

In fact,  they are one of the main causes of mortality among cardiovascular diseases, as indicated in La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, by the specialist Carles Reverter, head of the Hemotherapy and Hemostasis Service at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona and president of the Spanish Society of Thrombosis. 

How to know if you have thrombosis from the AstraZeneca's vaccine

In fact, Dr. Carles Reverter has offered some advice on how to detect we are suffering from thrombosis after receiving the coronavirus vaccine.

As explained by the president of the Spanish Society of Thrombosis, the main sign of atypical cerebral thrombosis is an intense headache that could appear from the third day after receiving the vaccine.

This is a very unusual pain that is not relieved by Paracetamol and is distinguished by its intensity from other side effects, such as headache, fever or tiredness, caused by the vaccine during the first two days after receiving the injection.

For its part,  the EMA lists a series of symptoms that could indicate the presence of a thrombus  and recommends prompt medical attention in the event of suffering from any of the ailments listed:

- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Swelling of the leg
- Persistent abdominal pain
- Neurological symptoms such as headache or blurred vision
- Small blood spots under the skin (petechiae).

Dr. Carles Reverter explained that thrombosis can be treated in many ways  (anticoagulants, infusion of immunoglobulins...) and patients can recover with very few sequelae, although some cases have also been lethal (18 of those studied by the EMA).

[This is a translation of the original article "Cómo saber que tienes una trombosis tras ponerte la vacuna del coronavirus" published in espanadiario.net]