Panel finds link between vaccination and rare case of blood clotting

The government's expert committee on adverse events following immunisation has identified a possible link between the rare cases of blood clotting with Covid-19 vaccine. The National Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) committee has confirmed one death due to vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) in India.

According to the National AEFI committee the "death case for which causality assessment has been done was found to have consistent causal association to vaccination," confirms the report by the immunisation division of the health ministry.

The confirmation from the committee comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) started investigating a case of a 32-year-old doctor in India who died some weeks after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.


Case history

• Family of deceased had reached out to several authorities
• Family even filed a right to information
• Health ministry said to have admitted death “is vaccine product related reaction and belongs to A1 category

As reported by ET in April, Snehal Lunawat, who was working as a lecturer in Nasik, was administered Covishield in January and died on March 1.

Lunawat's brother Shubham had said then that his sister's condition matched the "very rare cases of specific embolic and thrombotic events in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia) and related bleeding" and could be possibly linked to the vaccine.

Shubham told ET that his family reached out to several authorities to inform them of his sister's condition/death but to no avail. The family had even informed the Serum Institute of India, when Snehal was in a critical condition. However, the family did not receive any assistance from anywhere.

Shubham said that her sister's death was not reported appropriately within the AEFI monitoring system. The family even filed a RTI and received a response with the health ministry admitting that the death "is vaccine product related reaction and belongs to A1 category."

Even post causality assessment no one has reached out to the family to inform them. The causality assessment indicated a link to Covishield, yet there is no talk about compensation.

Malini Aisola, co-convenor, All India Drugs Action Network (AIDAN), who has been following the case, said that the state of assessment is a huge concern with incomplete investigations and many cases of serious AEFI/deaths, the assessments being found unclassifiable.

"The worst is that the TTS advisories for vaccine recipients and healthcare providers remain a secret. When persons experience such rare adverse events, they are not getting timely treatment to prevent fatality, and in many cases, government officials have been unresponsive."

When asked, a member of the AEFI committee said there have been sporadic cases of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia that has come to their knowledge during their investigations.

"There are 3-4 cases that have come forward. We will soon put them up on the website," he said on the condition of anonymity.