Vaccinated woman dies of rare blood clot

A local woman in her early 40’s who was vaccinated two months ago has died in hospital, but no yellow card had been submitted prior to her death with officials suggesting her case didn’t fit the bill.

According to local media, a 42-year-old Greek Cypriot woman received an AstraZeneca shot on April 26 and was recently rushed to the hospital with a serious rare but unknown type of blood clot.

Reports on Tuesday said the woman died on her hospital bed at Nicosia General, where she was being treated in the last few days. A post mortem was carried out Monday by state forensic pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou, who were joined by family-appointed private expert Marios Matsakis.

The cause of death was reportedly listed as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, with local media saying the findings concurred with hospital doctors.

But there was no yellow card submitted in the last two months according to officials from the State Health Services Organization, who also suggested the woman’s case was “something different and not a typical syndrome following vaccination.”

SHS representative Charalambos Charilaou was quoted in local media saying he had learned from doctors that a yellow card was never submitted during that time because the incident was viewed as unrelated to the vaccine, citing a two month period after vaccination.

It was not fully clear if or exactly when did the woman start having any side effects or warning signs.

A yellow card scheme provides for suspected or undesirable side effects in vaccinated patients to be reported to the European Medicines Agency for in-depth review. But EMA cannot accept such reports directly from patients or consumers, thus leaving it up to state authorities in the Republic of Cyprus to review cases and forward information to the EU drug regulator.

Cypriot officials confirmed that a yellow card on the woman’s case was finally submitted Tuesday morning. It was not clear whether any side effects had been otherwise reported or discussed prior to the woman’s sudden hospitalization.

Samples from the deceased have been collected for further lad testing and analysis, while state authorities said they would examine the woman’s file before they can decide whether details should be sent to EMA.