The Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (HALMED) said on Thursday that Croatia will continue to administer the Janssen (Johnson&Johnson) vaccine against COVID-19 as there has not been any report in the country of a related fatality while the benefits far outweigh the side effects.

HALMED spokeswoman Maja Basic told The Croatian news agency Hina on Thursday, one day after a young woman died in Slovenia two weeks after inoculation with that vaccine, that there had not been one case like that in Croatia so far and that Croatia was not considering suspending vaccination with the Johnson&Johnson vaccine.

HALMED said that it was familiar with the case in Slovenia and Slovenia’s decision to suspend vaccination with that vaccine. In the case in question, a combination of blood clotting and a low level of platelets was reported.

Most frequent side effects mild or moderate

Of a total of 93,240 doses of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine administered in Croatia until 29 September, there were 144 reports of suspected side effects.

These were mostly mild or moderate side effects that passed in a few days, including increased temperature, headache, shivers, muscle pain, ache at the injection spot, fatigue, general weakness, back pain or pains in the limbs.

According to the EudraVigilance, the European database of side effects, of about 15 million doses of the Janssen vaccine administered in the EU until 30 September, there have been 68 reports of blood clotting in combination with a low level of platelets as a potential side effect, and 16 of those cases had a fatal outcome.

Blood clots a very rare possible side effect

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) in April identified blood clots as a very rare side effect of the Janssen vaccine and that information has been included in the vaccine’s description, HALMED said, adding that the benefits of the vaccine still by far outweigh the possible side effects.