S. Korea reports 1st clotting death after AstraZeneca shot

SEOUL– A patient being treated in an unusual blood clotting case after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine died Wednesday, health authorities said.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) told reporters that the patient, who was earlier confirmed as the nation’s second clotting case among recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine, died at around 2:10 p.m. on Wednesday.

The man in his 30s was confirmed to have the very rare but serious side effect, called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), following inoculation on May 27.

The patient showed symptoms of a severe headache and nausea nine days after receiving the vaccine shot, the KDCA said.

He was later admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with the syndrome on Tuesday, it said.

“The direct cause of his death is brain hemorrhage, which was caused by cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and that was caused by TTS,” the KDCA said.

The first patient confirmed with blood clotting symptoms after receiving AstraZeneca vaccination was discharged from the hospital last weekend after recovery, it said.

Health authorities have not yet established a causal link between the blood clots and the vaccine.

The KDCA said it plans to review the case with experts, including the patient’s side effects and medical progress leading up to his death, to make improvements in the required areas based on its epidemiological investigation.

Earlier, the rollout of vaccines manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University was temporarily halted due to reports of blood clots in some European countries.

The authorities and the World Health Organization, however, advised that vaccinations be resumed, saying that the vaccine may be associated with blood clots in some very rare cases but its benefits outweigh the risk of possible side effects.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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