ZURICH (Reuters) – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday highlighted guidance for doctors which calls for them to avoid heparin when treating rare blood clots and low platelet counts in patients who received AstraZeneca’s or Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines.
Europe’s drugs regulator, in a statement seeking to boost awareness of proper treatment, focused on guidance from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), which has concluded “management should be initiated with non-heparin anticoagulation upon suspicion” of vaccine-linked clotting.
“For the management of suspected (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome), especially if no local guideline is available, the taskforce recommends that healthcare professionals consider the ISTH interim guidance,” the EMA said in its statement.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Toby Chopra)
