Govt's AEFI panel confirms first death after Covid vaccination in India

New Delhi: A 68-year-old man died due to anaphylaxis after he was administered a coronavirus vaccine said the government panel that was studying vaccine side-effects (AEFI).

The AEFI committee's report stated that the 68-year-old died on March 8, 2021, due to anaphylaxis after being vaccinated.

In the other two anaphylaxis cases, the people, who were given vaccines on January 19 and 16, recovered after being admitted to a hospital.

The results of the causality assessment of 31 cases were approved by the National AEFI Committee on February 5 (five cases), March 9 (eight cases) and March 31, 2021 (18 cases) after thorough review and deliberations.

According to the report, "Of the 31 causally assessed cases, 18 were classified as having an inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental - not linked to vaccination), 7 were classified as indeterminate, 3 cases were found to be vaccine product related, 1 was anxiety-related reaction and 2 cases were found to be unclassifiable."

"Unclassifiable events are events which have been investigated but there is not enough evidence for assigning a diagnosis due to missing crucial information. When this relevant information becomes available, the case may be reconsidered for causality assessment," the AEFI committee report said.

The AEFI report also stated that vaccine product-related reactions are expected reactions that can be attributed to vaccination based on current scientific evidence. Examples of such reactions are allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, etc.