A case involving an 18-year-old Clark County woman is one of six being investigated nationwide, in which Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is suspected to cause an extremely rare but potentially fatal reaction. has.
Nevada officials said during a meeting of the federal advisory committee on immunization practices of a case in the state, which is reviewing the reported cases of severe blood clots that could be a side effect of the vaccine.
A document presented at the meeting indicates that the Nevada case is in an 18-year-old woman who has not yet recovered.
She is one of six women who received the J&J vaccine and later was diagnosed with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, where blood clots occur in arteries that drain blood from the brain.
A source familiar with the report, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it involved a Clark County woman.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended a break in the use of the J&J vaccine while the reactions were investigated. Nevada subsequently asked to temporarily discontinue use of the Janssen vaccine, a reference to the J&J division that developed the vaccine.
Referring to the need for more information, the CDC advisory committee at Wednesday’s meeting voted on a recommendation regarding the vaccine, and continued to suspend its use.
Nevada officials have contacted federal regulators to hear why they were not informed of the reported case, according to a state news release. Both state and provincial officials said Tuesday that there were no cases of blood clots in Nevada.
All six cases involved women between the ages of 18 and 48 who developed the condition within two weeks of vaccination. One person is dead and all cases are being investigated.
Researchers are investigating whether the technology used in the J&J vaccine plays a role in the formation of blood clots.
The J&J vaccine uses the same technology as the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which has not been approved for use in the US and is associated with similar blood clots. Both are so-called viral vector vaccines that contain a virus that causes the common cold that has been rendered harmless. The virus is then adapted to include genetic instructions that elicit an immune response.
The other two vaccines allowed in the United States, Pfizer and Moderna, use a different technology called messenger RNA. These vaccines are not associated with the rare blood clots.
More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given in the US, the vast majority with no or mild side effects.
In Nevada as of April 12, more than 65,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine have been administered and recorded in Nevada WebIZ, according to Shannon Litz, a representative of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected]. Follow @ MaryHynes1 on Twitter.