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By Gavin Jones
ROME, June 11 (Reuters) - The Italian government said on
Friday it was restricting the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19
vaccine to people over the age of 60, after a teenager who had
received the shot died from a rare form of blood clotting.
Camilla Canepa died on Thursday aged 18 after being given the
vaccine on May 25, triggering a media and political outcry over
the Anglo-Swedish company's shot being used for adults of all
ages despite previously-raised medical concerns.
"AstraZeneca will only be used for people over 60," the
country's special COVID commissioner Francesco Figliuolo told
reporters.
People under the age of 60 who have received a first dose of
AstraZeneca should be given a different vaccine for the second
dose, the government's chief medical adviser Franco Locatelli
said at the same news conference.
"The risk-benefit assessment has changed," Locatelli said,
without mentioning the death of Canepa, who suffered from a low
platelet count, brain haemorrhage and abdominal blood clots.
AstraZeneca was not immediately available to comment.
Like many European countries, Italy briefly halted
AstraZeneca inoculations in March over concerns of rare blood
clotting problems, mainly in young people.
It resumed them the following month with the recommendation
the product be "preferably" used for people over the age of 60,
after the European drug regulator said the benefits of the jab
outweighed the risks.
Several other European countries have also stopped giving
the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people below a certain age,
usually ranging from 50 to 65.
However, as Mario Draghi's government sought to ramp up its
vaccination drive, some Italian regions launched "open days"
where the AstraZeneca shot was administered to people of any age
from 18 upwards.
These included young women who are the group considered most
at risk of the extremely rare blood clotting disorders.
The inoculation events, often held during evenings and
weekends, were partly aimed at preventing AstraZeneca doses
going to waste amid widespread reports of older people spurning
the product and cancelling their vaccination appointments.
Around 46% of people in Italy have received at least one
vaccine dose, while 23% are fully inoculated, figures broadly in
line with most other EU countries.
(additional reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Kirsten
Donovan)
