Sleeping sickness by the swine flu vaccine

29 cases of sleeping sickness in connection with the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix reported in Germany

01/05/2012

Scientists have long suspected a connection between the occurrence of so-called sleeping sickness (narcolepsy) and the previous administration of the swine flu vaccine „Pandemrix“. Some European studies see one „causal context between the flu vaccine and narcolepsy“. According to official data, 29 patient cases among vaccinees in Germany have now been reported.

29 cases related to swine flu vaccine
In addition to other European countries, cases were also reported in Germany, which found a connection between the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix and a triggered narcolepsy. Between the months of October 2010 and April 2012, 29 reports from clinics and doctors were forwarded to the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) in Langen, Hesse. Among the patients are frequent children (19) and ten adults. After the cessation of influenza, influenza vaccine is currently no longer used in Germany.

As a spokesman for the institute said, it would be helpful „Thirteen children and adolescents have a confirmed diagnosis. "In eight adults, the disease could also be reliably diagnosed, but in adults, the symptoms appeared much later than in the children In an adult case, there were about 12 months between the vaccination and the onset of symptoms the safety of vaccines.

Causes still unclear
Why the swine flu vaccine increases the risk of sleeping sickness, according to previous studies can not be scientifically explained. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) suggests that interaction with genetic factors could play a role. Furthermore, the experts suspect that additional influences such as certain infectious diseases, especially respiratory diseases, could be partly responsible. However, the exact mechanisms are largely unknown and could not be determined by previous studies.

Very rare sleeping sickness
Narcolepsy is a very rare disease. According to the German Society for Sleep Medicine (DGSM), around 40,000 people suffer from sleeping sickness in Germany. However, only about 4000 patients have a confirmed diagnosis. The Paul Ehrlich Institute reports that in Germany, one in every one million children is newly diagnosed every year. In the event of an outbreak, those affected usually suffer from sudden sleep-deprivation, the loss of muscle tension, an unnatural sleep pattern and sleep paralysis. Usually the symptoms vary in their frequency and severity. To date, it has not been conclusively clarified how and why the disease develops. Physicians assume that environmental influences and genetic preloads are the probable triggers.

Three studies conducted in Sweden, Ireland and Finland have already found increased rates among children and adolescents among vaccinated children and adolescents. According to the study data, the risk after a pandemrix vaccine increases to 3.6 to 6 additional cases per 100,000 minors. A study that explicitly explores this question in Germany does not exist until today.

Vaccine should no longer be injected into children
A hundred percent clarity about the cases in Germany therefore does not exist. Because the exact trigger is not yet known, the institute does not want to commit itself. "No mechanism is currently known or plausible on how vaccination could trigger a complex disease like narcolepsy.“ However, the PEI advises now to use the vaccine only in children and adolescents, if the swine flu is rampant and no other active ingredient available. Already last year, the EMA had severely limited the use of the vaccine, and recommended it only if „urgently requires protection against the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, but no trivalent flu vaccine with the corresponding virus component is available.“ For a start, there will be no similar study in Finland or Sweden. (Sb)

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Picture credits: Ernst Rose