After being administered with a COVID-19 vaccine from either BioNTech, Moderna, or Pfizer, at least 36 individuals have now developed a rare blood disorder known as ITP or immune thrombocytopenia.
Based on the report, the said disorder develops when the immune system attacks platelets, a component of the blood that is essential for clotting, or the cells that create them for unspecified reasons.
The 36 individual cases were reported to the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System or VAERS, as of the end of January.
Rare Blood Disease
But the system relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. It does not indicate whether vaccines had caused the reported problems.
According to Fox News, the CDC released the latest data on Tuesday. More than 43 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, with at least 32 million Americans receiving one dose of the vaccine.
During the trials of either Pfizer's or Moderna's vaccines, no cases of thrombocytopenia were reported.
Pfizer's spokesperson shared that they are aware of the causes of thrombocytopenia in recipients of their COVID-19 vaccine, and they are currently taking these reports of adverse events very seriously.
The spokesperson also added that they are collecting relevant information to share with the FDA.
But the spokesperson has mentioned that they have not yet established a causal association with their vaccine.
The spokesperson's statement also stated that to date, millions of individuals worldwide had been vaccinated, and they are closely monitoring all of the adverse events that individuals who received their vaccine might experience, Daily Mail reported.
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The said serious adverse events, which include deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine, are unfortunately likely to happen at a similar rate as they would in the general population.
Moreover, Pfizer also reported that the 36 reports received by the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System do not specifically mean that it is 36 isolated cases and individual patients that got thrombocytopenia after acquiring the vaccine, The New York Times reported.
The vaccine maker also emphasized the possibility of duplication during the submission of entries to the VAERS system.
Meanwhile, representatives of vaccine maker Moderna, the CDC, and the FDA did not respond to the requests for comment.
On the other hand, one of the individuals reportedly affected by the said disorder was the 56-year-old obstetrician from Miami beach, Dr. Gregory Smith, whose symptoms appeared three days after being administered on December 18 with the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.
Heidi Neckelmann, the wife of the 56-year-old obstetrician, shared on Facebook that her husband had entered the emergency room with a platelet count of zero and that he was admitted right away to the intensive care unit with a diagnosis of acute ITP, which is caused by a reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Commonly known as ITP, Immune thrombocytopenia is normally treated by platelet transfusions, with immune globulins and steroids, a treatment that focuses on preventing the spleen from destroying platelets.
