– I hadn’t seen anything on this street before – VG

Over the past eight days, we have seen relatively young, previously healthy people have come in with severe blood clots that are in unusual places and at the same time have low blood platelets. What they have in common is that they have previously taken the AstraZeneca vaccine, Rikshospitalet professor and chief physician Pål André Holme tells VG.

– It’s amazing.

He is one of the doctors who are now treating the three people who entered Rikshospitalet after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. It was unveiled during a press conference with the National Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian Medicines Agency on Saturday. They should not have underlying diseases.

It is not known whether there is a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the cases of blood clots and brain bleeds that have been reported in the last few days. Vaccination in Norway has been suspended pending investigation.

– How often do you see similar cases?

– It is not that frequent. It is very special. Not with that low platelet photo, I haven’t seen anything on this street here before, says the top one.

In short, platelets are absolutely essential to stop bleeding that is occurring in the body.

What makes it special here is that all three hospitalized patients have low platelet counts, which is not common in patients with blood clots.

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– They are healthy young people who have serious blood clots who have not had any type of disease before. One may wonder if there is a connection to the vaccine, which I do not consider unlikely.

Also, blood clots are found in unusual places, like blood clots in the brain (which aren’t strokes) and in the stomach, Holme says.

When treating blood clots, anticoagulant medications are used and the risk of bleeding is increased when you also have a reduced number of platelets to prevent bleeding. Therefore, the treatment of patients is very complicated.

NIPH: This is how they work now

– It is special that three cases with such a serious disease are so close in time, says the director of infection control, Geir Bukholm.

FHI and the Norwegian Medicines Agency spend the weekend and the following days mapping the situation in Norway and other countries. So far, they have received no reports of similar incidents from the UK or Sweden. But it has also come from Austria and Denmark.

Steinar Madsen, director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency, also says that the three people in Oslo have a combination of low platelets, blood clots and bleeding, noting that it is a very unusual disease picture.

Bukholm explains that the first thing will be to investigate and see if there is any explanation for this and if this can be related to vaccination. People who have become seriously ill will be tested for special conditions in them that make them more vulnerable. The second is to examine the production line for the doses of vaccine used.

– Currently we do not have data showing that there are more cases of blood clots among those who have been vaccinated with this vaccine than among the general population, but these cases have an unusually severe course and this course is rare. This makes us consider this situation as very serious.

– What would you say to people who have had the vaccine and wonder if it is safe?

– We went through this thoroughly.

– These are very rare events, so the probability of their occurrence in the individual is small. However, if someone has taken the AstraZeneca vaccine and continues to have symptoms after vaccination for more than three days and begins to show signs of skin bleeding, they should seek medical attention very quickly.

– Have you received similar messages about blood clots at Pfizer?

– Post-vaccination messages from Pfizer have not been that serious in any way. There is a significant difference between these messages and the last four cases.

Experts Explain: This Happens In The Body

– How can a vaccine trigger this?

– The question is whether the vaccine can cause a reaction similar to that seen with a virus. And if there is a slightly higher risk of blood clots, says Per Morten Sandset, vice chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Oslo and one of the country’s leading experts on blood diseases.

– It may be related to vaccination because vaccination simulates a bit what is seen with covid-19. What you see then is that those who get seriously ill get a strong activation of our blood clotting system and this can trigger blood clots.

– Here there may be the possibility that, for example, the AstraZeneca vaccine acts more like the virus.

Blood clots among covid patients are well documented, he further states.

– Special

– What we are facing here are a little strange things. Mechanisms a bit confusing, he says, and it targets low platelets, which aren’t common when blood clots occur, Sandset says.

It cannot be ruled out that it is because of the vaccine and that it may have a connection, says Sandset, adding that he still believes the benefit of vaccination is great because it saves thousands of lives, as they have seen in the UK. .

Bukholm says that the AstraZeneca vaccine can create slightly stronger reactions after vaccination and notes, like Sandset, that reactions in the blood system can occur as a result of the vaccine initiating a strong immune reaction:

– We know that infections and inflammation in the body also affect the coagulation system (the ability of blood to clot, so that you stop bleeding after an injury, editor’s note). And in connection with vaccination, it can also initiate inflammatory symptoms. Usually this does not lead to serious illness. Anyway, these cases are very special.