What is capillary leak syndrome and is it linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine?
health
Capillaries are the body's smallest blood vessels, and allow oxygen, nutrients and waste products to be delivered and removed from tissues. hareluya/ShutterstockFollowing the announcement of a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is now investigating whether the vaccine is linked to a second very rare blood disorder: systemic capillary leak syndrome (SCLS). To date, five cases of SCLS in recently vaccinated people have been reported to the EMA. The regulator’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee is now working to see if a causal link with the AstraZeneca vaccine can be established – as it did following reports of blood clots – and whether new safety guidelines for the vaccine are needed. This investigation is a response to what the EMA calls a “safety signal”. These are unusual events that have been flagged up as possible side-effects of a given medicine, but which need researching in-depth for this to be confirmed. As the EMA notes, receiving safety signals doesn’t itself prove that a medicine causes the adverse events being reported – illness or other medicines could also be the cause. This is why every ...
The Conversation
Apr 14, 2021
