Swine flu vaccine causes narcolepsy

Swine flu vaccine increases the risk of narcolepsy in adolescents

22.07.2011

The swine flu vaccine Pandemrix® is suspected of causing narcolepsy in adolescents. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has therefore recommended that children and adolescents under the age of 20 be dispensed with the controversial vaccine.

As early as February, the Finnish Health Institute (THL) in Helsinki had presented results of studies, according to which the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix favors the occurrence of narcolepsy (sleeping sickness), especially in children. Swedish researchers also found an increased narcolepsy risk from the swine flu vaccine in comparable epidemiological studies in adolescents. The European Medicines Agency has now been forced to respond and therefore recommends in a recent press release to refrain from using Pandemrix® in adolescents.

Warning by the European Medicines Agency about the swine flu vaccine
The criticism of the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix was great from the start. In particular, the risk of significant side effects caused uncertainty in the population. In addition, as the spread of swine flu was far from the extent that was originally suspected by concerned physicians and authorities, the Germans were extremely reluctant to vaccinate. Not necessarily a bad decision, as shown in hindsight. Because Swedish and Finnish studies come to the conclusion that the swine flu vaccine in children and adolescents can significantly increase the risk of narcolepsy. Therefore, in a recent press release, the European Medicines Agency points out that persons under the age of 20 should only receive Pandemrix if there is an urgent need to protect themselves from the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, but no trivalent flu vaccine with the corresponding virus component is available.

Swine flu vaccine increases the risk of sleeping sickness
The evaluation „all currently available data on the possible association between Pandemrix and narcolepsy“ was the cause for the current warning about the use of the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, according to the EMA. The epidemiological studies from Finland and Sweden, safety data from health authorities and case reports from various EU countries, as well as the preliminary results of an epidemiological study by the ECEC (Vaccine Adverse Events Surveillance and Communication) Network of the European Health Authority (ECDC), suggest that with the swine flu vaccine in children and adolescents a significantly increased risk of narcolepsy is connected, reports the EMA. For example, the Scandinavian studies have shown that vaccination with Pandemrix in adolescents increases the risk of usually extremely rare sleeping sickness by 6- to 13-fold. However, the case numbers with three to six additional narcolepsy disorders per 100,000 vaccinations are relatively manageable. In addition, the swine flu vaccine did not increase the risk of narcolepsy in people over the age of 20 years. In its current press release, the EMA still assumes that Pandemrix as a whole has a positive risk-benefit ratio.

Relationship between Pandemrix and narcolepsy risk
The way in which the swine flu vaccine increases the risk of narcolepsy, according to the experts on the basis of the studies so far can not be explained. However, the EMA believes that interaction of the vaccine with genetic or environmental factors may be responsible for this. In addition, other factors such as certain infectious diseases, in particular diseases of the upper respiratory tract, seem to play a role, the EMA reported. Nor could the Finnish and Swedish studies be easily transferred to other European countries, so the EMA claims that further research is needed to conclusively clarify the link between Pandemrix and increased risk of narcolepsy.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer announces educational studies
The manufacturer of the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, the company Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK), said in a recent statement to take the responsibility for the safety of patients very seriously and contribute with their own studies to clarify the possible increased narcolepsy risk want. According to the pharmaceutical company, more than 31 million doses of the swine flu vaccine have been administered worldwide and only 335 cases of narcolepsy in vaccinated persons have been reported, with 68 percent of them in Finland and Sweden. Given that narcolepsy is usually a very rare disease, with a recurrence rate of about one case per 100,000 people per year, the figures quoted by Glaxo-Smith-Kline seem at first glance to be within range. But the Scandinavian studies suggest another conclusion.

40,000 sleeping sickness patients in Germany
According to the data of the German Society of Sleep Medicine (DGSM), around 40,000 people in Germany suffer from narcolepsy, with only 4,000 affected persons having a corresponding diagnosis. Every year, one in every one million children in Germany is newly ill, according to the statement of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which is responsible for the safety of vaccines in Germany. According to the experts, sleeping sickness (narcolepsy) is essentially characterized by four different symptoms, which usually occur in varying degrees. These are a sudden compulsive sleep, cataplexy (loss of muscle tension), an abnormal sleep pattern and sleep paralysis (sleep paralysis). For the narcolepsy patients, the disease often brings significant restrictions in private and professional life with it, the experts said. The exact causes of sleeping sickness are still unknown, but in the professional world, a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental influences are considered likely causes of the disease.

Swine flu vaccine from the start in the criticism
With the current warnings from the EMA, criticism of the controversial swine flu vaccine has reached a new level. Previously, especially vaccine opponents had criticized Pandemrix because of possible side effects, as occasionally general skin reactions including hives (urticaria) had occurred and in rare cases, nerve pain (neuralgia) and seizures were recorded, the statement on the vaccine-critical Internet portal „www.impfschaden.info“. Here is also reported allergic reactions that have led in rare cases to shock. The portal also mentions isolated inflammation of the blood vessels and neurological diseases such as brain and spinal cord inflammation (encephalomyelitis) as possible consequences of a Pandemrix vaccine. However, the current warning of the EMA has a much greater scope, as the little-publicized criticism of vaccine opponents. (Fp)

Also read:
Sleeping sickness by swine flu vaccine
Immune to flu after swine flu infection?
Swine flu is no reason to panic
Facts about the swine flu

Picture credits: Ernst Rose