I Am Sure The Technology Investments In Many States Are Paying Off In This Search!

This appeared last week:

NSW hospitals hunt for rare blood clots linked to AstraZeneca vaccine

By Kate Aubusson

April 8, 2021 — 5.00am

NSW emergency departments are scouring medical records for blood clot cases linked to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as international medicines regulators inch closer to declaring the vaccine may cause the extremely rare condition.

The state’s vaccinators are warning anyone receiving the AstraZeneca shot to be on alert for blood clot symptoms as a precaution following the case of a 44-year-old man hospitalised with a severe and extremely rare clotting disorder in Melbourne on Friday.

Dozens of rare blood clots have been reported worldwide among the tens of millions of AstraZeneca shots administered.

A top official at the European Medicines Agency on Tuesday said there is a causal link between AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and extremely rare blood clotting syndrome dubbed vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT), though the nature of the connection was unclear.

“It is becoming more and more difficult to affirm that there isn’t a cause-and-effect relationship between AstraZeneca vaccines and the very rare cases of blood clots associated with a low level of platelets,” Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the EMA, told Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper.

But he said the benefits of taking the vaccine still outweigh the risks.

The Federal Government says it will continue to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine despite a European Union health official saying there is a casual link with the jab and rare blood clotting.

A spokesperson for the EMA said its evaluation “has not yet reached a conclusion”. The agency’s review is expected to be finalised by Friday AEST.

Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said “no cause-and-effect relationship... has been established at this stage”.

Australian vaccine experts are cautious, though increasingly convinced the AstraZeneca shot may cause this extremely rare subset of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.

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A spokesman for NSW Health said there have been no cases of VIPIT among people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the state.

But the state’s emergency departments are searching their digital triage and clinical records for keywords relating to the COVID-19 vaccine and blood clots to identify any patients who may have developed the disorder.

More here:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-hospitals-hunt-for-rare-blood-clots-linked-to-astrazeneca-vaccine-20210406-p57gy3.html

Almost two decades ago (2004) in the US there was a suspicion that a recently introduced anti-inflammatory uses to treat arthritis pain was causing an excess of heart attacks. Vioxx (rofecoxib) is a selective COX-2 inhibitor which was widely used post its introduction in 1999. In 2004 when the question was asked about the risk Kaiser Permanente were able to very quickly (days) using their system wide EHR say that there was a real and significant excess risk and soon thereafter the drug was removed from sale – despite being very effective (I know as I took it for a couple of years)

Here is the story from the time:

Raising Kaiser's role

Vioxx shines light on health giant's research

By Chris Rauber 

Oct 31, 2004 Updated Oct 29, 2004, 10:09am PDT

Kaiser Permanente's little-heralded research units are being hailed for first identifying serious problems that led to Merck & Co.'s $2.5 billion-a-year arthritis and pain drug Vioxx being pulled off the market.

A joint study with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of 1.39 million Kaiser enrollees found that heart attack rates and sudden cardiac deaths tripled for patients taking Vioxx compared with those taking a rival drug. The study was discussed at a scientific conference in Bordeaux, France, in late August. A full version was released in late September. Merck pulled Vioxx off the market Sept. 30.

Here is the link:

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2004/11/01/story6.html

At the time I thought how good it would be when we had similar capabilities. Well it has taken 15 or so years but I am pretty sure NSW Health and a couple others are there now and that they will quickly be able to sort out just what the local risk of this very rare but nasty problem is post vaccination.

Definite progress I reckon.

I do have to say that my brief stay in Royal North Shore Hospital a couple of weeks ago showed me just how totally their system is embedded into pretty much all that goes on and that the level of satisfaction using the system was pretty high and totally normalised.

Baby steps, and without the ADHA and the #myHR, but real progress is being made.

David.