Janssen vaccine: new recommendations following a risk of heart attack

Janssen vaccine new recommendations following a risk of heart attack

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    The HAS has issued new recommendations concerning the Janssen vaccine, a new study suggesting a risk of myocardial infarction two weeks after the injection.

    On Monday February 21, 2022, the High Authority for Health recommended that the Janssen vaccine (Johnson & Johnson laboratory) against Covid-19 be reserved only for certain people at risk of severe forms of Covid-19 with a contraindication for mRNA vaccines.

    A risk of heart attack two weeks after the injection

    A decision taken pending the conclusions of a control study by the European Medicines Agency following alerts from a new study concerning an increased risk of myocardial infarction in the two weeks following the injection of the Janssen vaccine for those over 75. “At this stage, these preliminary results must be interpreted with caution and need to be confirmed by other studies at the international level”specifies the HAS in the press release.

    38 million doses worldwide

    The Janssen vaccine arrived in France in April 2021, it was the fourth in the vaccine arsenal after Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca. It is an inactivated recombinant adenoviral vector vaccine capable of reproducing the Spike protein of the SARS-CoV 2 coronavirus. A single injection is required for this vaccine. A booster dose that has not yet been validated. From the beginning, the place of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine was questioned a lot following the risk of rare occurrence of cases of thrombosis, leading to reserve it for over 55s in whom the risk was not identified. An opinion from the EMA confirmed the possible but rare link, but concluded that the benefit/risk balance remained favorable.

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    To date, according to the HAS press release, “38 million doses of the Janssen vaccine have been administered” at the World level. Concerning the subject of the risk of myocardial infarction, pharmacovigilance data only report so far, “no signal” related to European level or US level”.

    Pending the official conclusion of the EMA, the HAS “recommends postponing vaccination with the Janssen vaccine, except for people at risk of a severe form of the disease who have a contraindication to the administration of an mRNA vaccine”.

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