HYDERABAD: Millions of doses of Covid vaccines administered so far have thrown up just nine cases of death caused by confirmed reactions to jabs since February 2021 according to the health ministry’s national committee on adverse events following immunisation (AEFI).
Of these nine deaths, two deaths each were attributed to vaccine product-related reactions, categorised as A1, in Telangana, Maharashtra and J&K and one each in Kerala, Haryana and Chandigarh. Eight of the casualties were linked to Covishield and one to Covaxin.
The cause of each of the nine deaths was explained as vaccination side-effects like anaphylaxis, thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome. Experts say the estimated incidence of anaphylaxis is 1.3 per million doses of flu vaccine administered.
“Overall, the benefits of vaccination are overwhelmingly greater than the small risk of harm. As a precautionary measure, all emerging signals of harm are being constantly tracked and reviewed periodically,” one of the reports states.
The data was culled by TOI from a series of reports on AEFI prepared by the committee between February 2021 and March this year.
India has administered 186 crore-odd vaccine shots, including the first, second and booster doses.
“For the mammoth amount of vaccine doses administered, the number of adverse events reported are negligible. All vaccines used worldwide are found to be safe. In these cases of adverse events and deaths in a given individual with health risks, anything can trigger a complication,” said Rakesh Mishra, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
The immunisation division has released 13 reports so far regarding 1,112 adverse events and 391 deaths. A majority of these are classified as coincidental. Apart from nine A1 deaths, at least 45 are classified as “sudden unexplained deaths” as the committee couldn’t get hold of clinical information, post-mortem reports or any other documentation.
The national AEFI committee’s causality assessment report says “vaccine product-related reactions (A1) are expected reactions that are attributed to vaccination based on existing scientific evidence”.
Examples of such reactions include allergic reactions and anaphylaxis. “Unclassifiable events (unexplained deaths) are events that are investigated, but there is not enough evidence for confirming a diagnosis due to missing crucial information. The case may be reconsidered for causality assessment when relevant information becomes available. Coincidental events are those reported following Immunisation but for which a clear cause other than vaccination is found on the investigation.”
Telangana state joint director of child health and immunisation, Dr G Sudheera, told TOI, “We have a case of an 18-year-old girl in Hyderabad who died due to a reaction that may have been caused by vaccination. The committee asked for information about this case, and we have provided it. The second case at Jogulamba Gadwal could be of a girl from Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh.”
