Researchers Find Possibility Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Will Cause Blood Clots

Illustration of a COVID-19 vaccination. (Wikimedia Commons/Annalyn Gallego/Province of Camarines Sur)

JAKARTA - Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine has been linked to an increased chance of developing thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare blood disorder, Israeli researchers say.

TTP is an autoimmune disease that causes blood clots to form in various organs of the body. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), these clots can restrict or block the flow of oxygen-rich blood to major organs such as the brain, kidneys, and heart, resulting in serious health problems.

Researchers from the Institute of Hematology at Shamir Medical Center, Israel said they were alert to this problem after seeing a sudden increase in TTP in the country, four cases detected in one month compared to two or three cases per year.

The medical team said they found a chronological relationship between a patient's vaccination and the onset of symptoms. They emphasized that these were new patients and patients whose disease had progressed after a long period of remission.

The Ministry of Health is currently evaluating the study and until the evaluation is complete, doctors have been asked not to conduct interviews.

As a result of their research, the medical team led by Dr. Maya Koren-Michowitz, head of the Laboratory of Hematology and Translational Hematology-Oncology, recommends that people who have TTP only get vaccinated with special permission from their doctor. If they get vaccinated to get a further clinical evaluation.

"Doctors and patients need to be aware of clinical symptoms, weakness, fatigue, neurological disorders, bleeding, and chest pain", the team said in a statement, citing The Jerusalem Post, Tuesday, June 22.

They also asked people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine to be alert and seek medical help immediately if symptoms appear. Early diagnosis and modern treatment have increased the survival rate of TTP patients from 10 percent in the past to 80 percent today.

However, a spokeswoman from the hospital stressed that this study, which is very small, should not prevent people from getting vaccinated and encourage anyone who has not been vaccinated to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Previously reported, Israeli researchers found a vaccine is still very effective to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the findings of a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is able to reduce coronavirus infections by more than 90 percent.

This data was obtained by the Clalit Research Institute, based on research data on 1.2 million people. Half of these had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, compared with those who had not.

"The rate of symptoms of COVID-19, which means people who are infected with the coronavirus and feel sick, decreased by 94 percent among people who received two doses of the vaccine, while the rate of serious illness decreased by 92 percent", Clalit said in a statement.