AEFI Committee confirms first death following vaccination in India

NEW DELHI: A government panel studying side effects of COVID-19 vaccines confirmed the first death due anaphylaxis following vaccination. Causality assessment was done on 31 cases reported of Serious Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) after COVID-19 vaccination was carried out by the panel.

A report by the National AEFI Committee said that a 68-year-old man died due to anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction), after being vaccinated on March 8, 2021. Dr NK Arora, Chairperson, National AEFI committee, said that it is the first death linked to COVID-19 vaccination due to anaphylaxis, and it re-emphasises the need to wait for 30 minutes at the inoculation centre after receiving the jab. He mentioned that most of the anaphylactic reactions occur during this period and prompt treatment can prevent deaths.

The AEFI committee had examined five such cases that took place on February 5, eight cases on March 9 and eighteen cases on March 31. According to the report, as of April first week, the reporting rate is 2.7 deaths per million vaccine doses administered, and 4.8 hospitalisations per million vaccine doses administered. The committee stated that reporting of deaths and hospitalisations as serious events does not automatically imply that the events were caused due to COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, only properly conducted investigations and causality assessments can help in understanding and recognizing any casual relation, if any, between the events and the vaccine. Out of the 31 casually assessed cases, 18 cases were classified as having inconsistent casual association to vaccination, seven were classified as indeterminate, 3 cases were found to be vaccine product related, one was anxiety related reaction, and two cases were found to be unclassified.