COVID-19 is more likely to cause very rare neurological conditions than vaccination with the AstraZeneca or Pfizer preventives, according to a study led by the University of Oxford in the UK. There have been reports of rare neurological complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday, analysed anonymised healthcare records of over 32 million people across England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers assessed the risk of developing neurological complications within 28 days of a first dose of either the AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India, or Pfizer preventive, or within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They found an increased, but low, risk of the rare neurological conditions Guillain-Barre syndrome and Bell’s palsy following a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and an increased but low risk of hemorrhagic stroke following a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, infection with COVID-19 was associated with a greater risk of developing neurological complications than receiving either vaccine, according to the researchers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This analysis provides important information about which neurological conditions could be linked with COVID-19 vaccination or infection,” said Professor Carol Coupland from the University of Nottingham, UK, one of the researchers involved in the study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Overall, the findings from this study show that the risks of hospital admission with nervous system complications associated with COVID-19 infection are greater than the risks associated with COVID-19 vaccinations,” Coupland said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers found different risks for different types of neurological conditions depending on which vaccine people received. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, these were substantially lower than the risks occurring in association with a positive COVID-19 PCR test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“For example, we estimate 145 excess cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome per 10 million people in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, compared to 38 per 10 million for those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine,” said Martina Patone from the University of Oxford, and co-lead author of the study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers noted that the initial clinical trials of the vaccines were not large enough to be able to detect very rare adverse neurological events — those that happen in less than 1 person out of 10,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest study was able to achieve this by looking at the real-world data from over 32 million healthcare records in England, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study used what is known as a “self-controlled case series (SCCS)” design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An SCSS compares how often adverse events — in this case neurological complications – happen in different set windows of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The authors noted several limitations to the study, including that only risks associated with the first vaccine dose were examined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data on outcomes following second doses was limited at the time of this study since the vaccination programme in the UK is still underway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The researchers could also not distinguish between different types of Guillain-Barre syndrome due to the way healthcare records were coded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“This analysis provides important information about which neurological conditions could be linked with COVID-19 vaccination or infection,” said Professor Carol Coupland from the University of Nottingham, UK, one of the researchers involved in the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources"],"yoast_head":"\n