Health Check

Vaccine and blood clots

03.17.2021 - By BBC World ServicePlay

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As further European countries announce precautionary suspension of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine over fears it may have caused blood clots in a very small number of people, Claudia talks to BBC Health Editor James Gallagher about what the data really tells us about the safety of this vaccine. Tanzania and Covid. Claudia talks to BBC Africa Correspondent Leila Nathoo about Covid in Tanzania. President Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent Covid-19 sceptics, and is now rumoured to have died of the disease himself. Last year he said the disease had been eradicated from Tanzania by three days of national prayer but does Tanzania have a hidden epidemic? Vaccine Side Effects. Claudia discovers why there seems to be such a difference in how people have reacted to the vaccine, from no side effects at all, to mild flu like symptoms. She looks at how the vaccine triggers an immune response, and why it can’t give you Covid. Haitians in Chile. Chile has long been a destination for immigrants from other countries in the region because there are more work opportunities. People from places like Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru make up around 8 percent of the 19 million population and the number is growing every year. What’s surprising is that the third biggest group of immigrants in Chile come from the Caribbean country Haiti. Health services are quickly having to learn ways to integrate their new patients who have different approaches to healthcare as Jane Chambers reports. Presenter: Claudia Hammond

Producer: Alexandra Feachem (Picture: A vial of AstraZeneca vaccine at Krakow University Hospital, Poland in February 2021. Photo credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Getty Images.)

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