Sahpra assures no clotting in SA health workers from J&J vaccine
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) has moved to alleviate concerns that South African healthcare workers could be in danger after taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The safety of the vaccine was thrust into the spotlight on Tuesday when United States regulators recommend a pause in the use of the vaccine over blood clot fears.
Almost 290 000 frontliners have been vaccinated since the country rolled out the Sisonke phase 3B trial in February.
The J&J vaccine programme was also rolled out in other parts of the world.
On Tuesday, the US flagged its vaccine programme after 6 women developed rare and severe blood clotting, assumedly from the vaccine.
As a precautionary measure, SA health authorities then quickly halted the vaccine programme in the country as a response to the US developments.
"Sahpra, together with its scientific committees, has recently reviewed the data from the Sisonke Phase 3b implementation study," the health regulator said in a statement.
"Based on these data, no major safety concerns have been identified. No causal relationship between vaccination and the developments of the blood clots is evident at this stage."
Further review of the data is expected to take a few days.
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