| Author |
 Topic  |
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
 Posted - 02/03/2011 : 20:53:14
|
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/02/panel_confirms_h1n1_vaccine_link_with_narcolepsy_2331303.html
Panel Confirms H1N1 Vaccine Link with Narcolepsy
1 February 2011
A report released on Tuesday says there is likely a link between the swine flu vaccine used in Finland and cases of narcolepsy in children.
The national narcolepsy panel's interim report suggests that the Pandemrix vaccination increases the risk of narcolepsy nearly tenfold. It says that children aged 4 to 19 were at nine times greater risk of contracting narcolepsy within eight months of the inoculation, compared with those who did not get the jab.
The working group says it is most likely that the vaccine increased the likelihood of falling ill with narcolepsy in conjunction with some other factor or factors.
It expects to confirm the preliminary findings within a few months.
Fifty-two Finnish children who were given the vaccine last winter subsequently came down with narcolepsy, which can be a debilitating lifelong condition. That is many times more than the annual average in recent years.
An increase was also reported in Sweden, but not so far in other countries where the vaccine was used.
"The trigger for narcolepsy remains unclear, which makes it difficult to evaluate the link to the vaccine," says Kari Välimäki, Permanent Secretary at the Minister of Social Affairs and Health.
The nation's highest-ranking physician, Risto Pelkonen, told the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that the families of these narcolepsy patients should be reimbursed by the state.
National Institute for Health and Welfare statement
Health Official: Swine Flu Vaccinations for Children Possibly a Mistake
YLE |
 |
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2011 : 10:10:27
|
http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/01/health_official_swine_flu_vaccinations_for_children_possibly_a_mistake_2326931.html?origin=rss
1st February 2011
Health Official: Swine Flu Vaccinations for Children Possibly a Mistake
published Sun 04:40 PM, updated Tue 12:27 PM
The Chief Medical Officer of Finland's National Public Health Institute has conceded that it may have been unnecessary to vaccinate children and young people against swine flu. Dr Terhi Kilpi told the Väli-Suomi newspaper group's Sunday newspaper supplement that perhaps the vaccine should not have been given to 5-20 year-olds.
Kilpi said that she would no longer recommends the vaccination for this age group. She added that if she had known of the potential consequences, she would have not inoculated 5-20 year-olds.
"A year ago, the current understanding was that the swine flu was a danger specifically for the young. At that time there was not yet any reason to suspect serious side effects to the vaccine," said Kilpi.
The vaccine is now suspected to be linked to an increase in the number of cases of narcolepsy affecting children and young people in Finland, Sweden and Iceland. In Finland, 52 children have been diagnosed with narcolepsy.
Even though it is under suspicion, the vaccine has been reintroduced in the UK where a new swine flu epidemic has caused the deaths of some 200 people.
Dr Kilpi added that the negative publicity surrounding the swine flu vaccine is not worrying.
"Most people understand that vaccinations prevent serious, fatal diseases. The benefits they provide outweigh the disadvantages many times over."
Finland's National Public Health Institute is to publish an interim report on the links between narcolepsy, the swine flu, and the vaccine this coming Tuesday.
YLE |
|
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2011 : 18:23:55
|
http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/general/14134-glaxosmithkline-not-liable-to-pay-pandemrix-damages-mediuutiset-.html
GlaxoSmithKline not liable to pay Pandemrix damages -Mediuutiset
Domestic news - General
Friday, 04 February 2011 10:35
Finnish medical journal Mediuutiset reported Friday that British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline was not liable to pay compensation for narcolepsy cases potentially caused by the Pandemrix influenza vaccine.
The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) confirmed that GlaxoSmithKline had been contractually relieved from liability.
Mediuutiset added that other countries had signed similar agreements with vaccine makers.
STT
|
|
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2011 : 14:39:51
|
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/avian-flus-back-warns-un-ndash-and-new-strain-is-resistant-to-vaccines-2345855.html
Independent
30 August 2011
Avian flu's back, warns UN – and new strain is resistant to vaccines
By Lewis Smith
Fears of a fresh outbreak of bird flu this winter have been raised by the United Nations, after an increase in the number of deaths and, crucially, the emergence of a new, mutated strain of the disease.
At least eight people have died of bird flu in Cambodia this year, the most recent being a six-year-old girl earlier this month, and the virus has reached countries that had been free of it for several years.
Existing vaccines appear to be powerless against the new strain of the H5N1 virus which, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said, has now spread across much of Vietnam and China. It remains uncertain whether the mutant virus can be transmitted to humans, and if so how dangerous it potentially is.
The FAO has urged stiffer surveillance measures to prevent the disease spreading to new areas. "Wild birds may introduce the virus, but people's actions in poultry production and marketing spread it," said Juan Lubroth, the FAO's chief veterinary officer.
And he warned: "The general departure from the progressive decline in 2004-08 could mean that there will be a flare-up of H5N1 this autumn and winter, with people unexpectedly finding the virus in their backyard."
Some countries which were previously free of the virus have suffered outbreaks over the past two years as a result of it being introduced by migratory birds. These include Bulgaria, Romania, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nepal and Mongolia.Bird flu was first detected in 2003 and 331 deaths worldwide have been attributed to it from 565 cases of bird flu in humans. At its peak in 2006 it was present in 63 countries and there were 4,000 outbreaks of the disease in wild birds and poultry.
Measures to halt the spread of the disease included widespread culls of poultry and other birds where infections were found or suspected.
In all, some 400 million domestic poultry were slaughtered and the disease was said to have cost the world's economies $20bn but the spread was halted. In the UK exclusion zones were set up around domestic and wild bird populations where the virus was detected and many thousands of birds were culled.
The most high-profile case in Britain was that of a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Holton, Suffolk, where 160,000 turkey chicks were gassed to prevent the virus spreading any further. The precise route by which the virus reached the farm was never categorically established.
By 2008 the number of cases had been brought down dramatically to 302, but since then the numbers have been creeping up again, with almost 800 cases reported around the world in the past year.
In six countries – Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Vietnam – it is known to be endemic.
|
|
|
|
jennyr
411 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 21:29:12
|
Revisited this thread and had to have a bit of a laugh when I looked back at some of those who are claiming to be saving so many lives (thanks everyone!)
'Dr. Norbert Bischofberger...the inventor of Tamiflu...has made millions from the drug, but colleagues have said it was science, not money, that motivated him.
Swine flu has killed more than 700 people globally. Ok - I am not a statistician but - what is the world population? So 700 people (allegedly) died from a virus that is (allegedly) swine flu and this guy has the temerity to claim that he has had a huge impact on saving lives globally - word population is how many billions.
What an arse!
|
|
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2012 : 12:31:02
|
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406172635.htm
Science Daily
Did Seasonal Flu Vaccination Increase the Risk of Infection With Pandemic H1N1 Flu?
ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2010)
In September 2009, news stories reported that researchers in Canada had found an increased risk of pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza in people who had previously been vaccinated against seasonal influenza. Their research, consisting of four different studies, has now undergone further scientific peer review and is published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.
Did previous vaccination against seasonal flu increase the risk of getting pH1N1 flu? Based on these studies -- conducted by a large network of investigators across Canada led by Principal Investigator Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, in collaboration with provincial leads Gaston De Serres in Quebec, Natasha Crowcroft in Ontario and Jim Dickinson in Alberta -- the answer remains: "possibly."
In a school outbreak of pH1N1 in spring 2009, people with cough and fever were found to have received prior seasonal flu vaccination more often than those without. Several public health agencies in Canada therefore undertook four additional studies during the summer of 2009 to investigate further. Taken together, the four studies included approximately 2,700 people with and without pH1N1.
The first of the studies used an ongoing sentinel monitoring system to assess the frequency of prior vaccination with the 2008-09 seasonal vaccine in people with pH1N1 influenza (cases) compared to people without evidence of infection with an influenza virus (controls). This study confirmed that the seasonal vaccine provided protection against seasonal influenza, but found it to be associated with an increased risk of approximately 68% for pH1N1 disease.
The further 3 studies (which included additional case-control investigations in Ontario and Quebec, as well as a transmission study in 47 Quebec households where pH1N1 influenza had occurred) similarly found between 1.4-2.5 times increased likelihood of pH1N1 illness in people who had received the seasonal vaccine compared to those who had not. Prior seasonal vaccination was not associated with an increase in hospitalization among those who developed pH1N1 illness.
These studies do not show whether there was a true cause-and-effect relationship between seasonal flu vaccination and subsequent pH1N1 illness (as might occur if, for example, the seasonal vaccine modified the immune response to pH1N1), or whether the observed association was not a result of vaccination, but was instead due to differences in some unidentified factor(s) among the groups being studied.
If the findings from these studies are real they raise important questions about the biological interactions between pre-existing and novel pandemic influenza strains. The researchers note, however, that the World Health Organization has recommended that pH1N1 be included in subsequent seasonal vaccine formulations. This will provide direct protection against pH1N1 and thereby obviate any risk that might have been due to the seasonal vaccine in 2009, which did not include pH1N1.
In an accompanying commentary in PLoS Medicine, Lone Simonsen and Cécile Viboud, who were not involved in the studies, write: "Given the uncertainty associated with observational studies, we believe it would be premature to conclude that increased the risk of 2009 pandemic illness, especially in light of six other contemporaneous observational studies in civilian populations that have produced highly conflicting results." They conclude that "this perplexing experience should teach us how to best react to disparate and conflicting studies and prepare us for the next public health crisis, so that we can better manage future alerts for unexpected risk factors."
Funding: This project was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the British Columbia Ministry of Health and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Alberta Health and Wellness, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux du Québec, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ). Although agencies of the investigators provided infrastructure in support of the reported studies, the funders did not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
|
|
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2013 : 10:51:04
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21828245
Drug-resistant pandemic swine flu 'community risk'
By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online
Australian experts are concerned about the threat of a new type of drug-resistant pandemic flu that is circulating in the population at large.
The swine flu strain has learned how to dodge the antiviral Tamiflu and, though rare, is emerging outside of hospitals.
The team who have studied it say the virus is "fitter" than other drug-resistant strains and the world should be on alert for outbreaks.
UK experts say they have seen a handful of similar cases.
The UK's Health Protection Agency said it would be closely monitoring the situation.
The Australian investigators presented their findings at a meeting on major infectious diseases.
Experts at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases heard how the 'H1N1pdm09' swine flu virus is still sensitive to another antiviral drug Relenza (zanamivir).
But Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is now powerless against the strain that has been found in people in the community rather than sick patients with serious underlying conditions and weak immune systems.
Vaccines can prevent infection occurring in the first place.
Lead investigator Dr Aeron Hurt, from the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, said: "The greatest concern is that these resistant viruses could spread globally, similar to that seen in 2008 when the former seasonal H1N1 virus developed oseltamivir resistance and spread worldwide in less than 12 months."
The new strain that they have been examining is emerging among people who have never been treated with Tamiflu, suggesting it is very good at spreading from person to person.
Dr Hurt says animal studies by his team confirm this.
Although the Tamiflu-resistant strain is still relatively rare, affecting about 2% of people with swine flu in the Australian population that they studied, Dr Hurt is concerned that it has the potential to turn global.
Similar resistant strains have been detected in Europe but at this stage only on an ad hoc basis, says Dr Hurt.
"The widespread transmission and circulation of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 viruses remains a risk in the future.
"Close monitoring of resistant viruses in both treated and community patients remains important."
Pandemic potential
In the UK, the HPA has recorded eight cases of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 in the community setting.
The HPA's head of flu surveillance Dr Richard Pebody said: "While the frequency of oseltamivir resistance in community settings has increased slightly since the 2009-10 pandemic from 1-2% in the 2012/13 flu season, rates of detection remain low."
Swine flu (H1N1) infected a fifth of people during the first year of the pandemic in 2009, data suggest.
***
It is thought the virus killed 200,000 people globally.
Although the pandemic has been declared by officials as over, the virus is still circulating.
During the pandemic, the H1N1 virus crowded out other influenza viruses to become the dominant virus. This is no longer the case. Many countries are reporting a mix of influenza viruses.
H1N1 caused a swine flu pandemic (an extensive outbreak in many countries) in 2009 infecting a fifth of the population
Many people now have some immunity to H1N1 as a result of this exposure
Vaccines are available that can stop H1N1 infections
Some people - the sick, elderly, young infants and pregnant women - are at particular risk of complications of they catch H1N1
Antiviral drugs like Tamiflu can lessen the severity of symptoms in those who catch H1N1
|
|
|
|
jabsadmin
1238 Posts |
Posted - 03/28/2013 : 22:21:58
|
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2300205/Swine-flu-jab-wrecked-childrens-health-It-rushed-amid-fears-global-pandemic-Now-linked-illness-makes-victims-sleep-19-hours-day.html
Swine flu jab wrecked our children's health: It was rushed in amid fears of a global pandemic. Now it's linked to an illness that makes victims sleep 19 hours a day
Children developed sleep disorder after jab to protect them from swine flu
UK Health Protection Agency found jab increased chance of narcolepsy
Investigations focusing on element of vaccine called 'adjuvant'
By STEVE BOGGAN
PUBLISHED: 22:45, 27 March 2013
Nobody would listen, but Caroline Hadfield knew there was something dreadfully wrong with her five-year-old son Josh. Not only was her once lively boy constantly falling asleep, but he would often stay asleep for 18 or 19 hours a day.
‘It was as if something in him was shutting down,’ says Caroline. ‘His legs would crumble beneath him. Sometimes he would just pass out. It was terrifying. We kept taking him to hospital but they said there was nothing wrong with him.
‘One day, he was sitting on a bed in a ward and he seemed to go into a trance. A nurse took one look at him at said: “I have no idea what planet he’s on, but it isn’t this one.”’
Only after months of inconclusive tests and mistaken reassurances from medics that everything was fine did the real reason for Josh’s condition become clear — he had developed a rare and devastating condition called narcolepsy.
Two years on, he has been identified as one of a group of children who developed this crippling sleep disorder after receiving a jab to protect them against swine flu.
Narcolepsy is a neurological condition which interferes with the brain’s mechanisms to control wakefulness and sleep, leaving sufferers constantly tired and likely to fall asleep any time, anywhere.
In many cases, victims also suffer from cataplexy, a sudden and frightening relaxation of the body’s muscles which causes people to collapse or even pass out without warning. It usually strikes when the sufferer is experiencing heightened emotions such as laughter or anger.
So far, 11 likely victims have been identified. While for the vast majority of children the swine flu jab proved harmless and effective, the UK Health Protection Agency last month found that giving the jab to young children increased their chance of developing narcolepsy by 14 times.
It may be that the children affected would have developed narcolepsy later in life without the injection. No one knows for sure.
What is known is that by 2011 there was already sufficient concern over the potential link for the Department of Health to issue new guidelines banning the vaccination for anyone under the age of 20.
'He went from being a happy, playful child to a little boy who was afraid to laugh'
For Josh, that decision came too late. He was injected with the vaccine Pandemrix, made by GlaxoSmith Kline, in December 2009 and his first symptoms appeared a few weeks later.
‘Like any responsible parent, I did as much research as I could before allowing Josh to have the jab,’ says Caroline, a training analyst from Frome, Somerset.
‘The only side effect I was made aware of was soreness of the arm, so I felt re-assured. At first there were no problems, but three weeks after having the vaccine he became dramatically sleepy.
‘He started wanting to go to bed at 6pm and then in the middle of the afternoon. By the February half-term he was sleeping for 18 or 19 hours a day.’
Josh, then aged five, became increasingly listless, says Caroline, 42. He went from being a happy, active child to becoming grumpy and angry. Over the next few months she noticed a lack of control in his arms and legs.
Then his tongue began to hang out of his mouth and finally the sleeping began to consume the entire day.
Caroline and her husband, Charlie, a 48-year-old printer, began to worry that Josh could have a brain tumour. ‘By March, he could hardly stand up and I was getting calls from his school asking me to pick him up because he had fallen asleep at 10am and they couldn’t wake him,’ she says. ‘He was tested for glandular fever but that was negative. Then he had his first proper attack of cataplexy. He was watching the TV and laughing and then his muscles gave way, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out for about 30 seconds.
‘We were absolutely terrified and called an ambulance, but by the time it arrived he was fine again.’
What followed is common to most of the cases: months of blood tests, lumbar punctures (where a sample of fluid is taken from the lower back) and brain scans.
Doctor after doctor pronounced Josh to be healthy even when he was passing out for anything between 30 seconds and four minutes. As luck would have it, these passing out sessions never happened in front of the doctors.
At first, they were dismissed as being related to a mystery ‘virus’, but Caroline knew something more sinister was behind all the symptoms and pushed for more and more tests.
Eventually, Josh was sent to a specialist sleep clinic — one of only a handful in Britain — at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where his narcolepsy was finally diagnosed.
Josh was one of the thousands of children to be vaccinated with Pandemrix in response to the deadly H1N1 flu pandemic. The virus, called swine flu because it was caused by a human virus combining with one common in pigs, was first identified in April 2009 and went on to kill almost 300,000 people worldwide.
In England, the parents of a quarter of all under-fives followed Government advice to have them protected against the flu. Among children aged 15 and under with underlying health conditions, such as asthma, the take-up was even higher at 37 per cent.
'Our children may never be able to drive or hold down a job'
Robyn Ballingham, now seven, was given the jab in January 2011. Within weeks, she started becoming more and more sleepy. But it wasn’t until she suffered her first attack of cataplexy, five months after the injection, that doctors at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow, diagnosed narcolepsy. Like Josh, she has become moody and sad too.
‘It was terribly upsetting to see Robyn change from a happy, active child', says her mother Dawn, 39.
‘She became very serious because she was afraid of laughing. If she laughs, it could bring on an attack of cataplexy. This affects her muscles, and eyelids are held up by muscles so it causes her eyelids to suddenly drop down and she can’t see. She panics because then she falls over, so I constantly need to be there.’
Dawn, a beauty therapist, and her husband John, 49, feel they cannot leave Robyn alone even for a moment.
‘She gets upset when we tell her she can’t do the things other children can. For example, we couldn’t risk her swimming without us being right at her side because she could drown if she had a bout of cataplexy.’
It was a similar story for Lucio Decicco, now aged eight, from Hawkinge, Kent, following his swine flu vaccination in January 2010 — the listlessness, the passing out, the incessant sleeping.
He, too, underwent batteries of tests before finally being diagnosed with narcolepsy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in South London. ‘Lucio had more tests than any child should ever have to go through — blood tests, lumbar punctures, MRI and CAT scans on his brain,’ says his mother, Karen, a pre-school teacher.
‘The staff at St Thomas’s were wonderful, but they couldn’t find out what was wrong with him.’
Then Karen, 34, saw a story in the Daily Mail highlighting suspicions about Pandemrix in Finland. ‘I wrote to the hospital about the article, they quickly tested Lucio for narcolepsy, and the mystery was solved. It was heartbreaking to see the change in him.
‘He went from being a happy, playful child to a little boy who was afraid to laugh.’
So, with all the supposed stringent checks on new drugs, how could this have happened and what is being done about it?
Investigations are focusing on an element of the vaccine called an ‘adjuvant’ which effectively boosts the potency of the medicine.
In the case of Pandemrix, an adjuvant called AS03 was used. It is a combination of squalene (an oil derived from shark livers), a form of vitamin E called DL-alpha-tocopherol and a mixing agent called polysorbate 80. The adjuvant was not included in the vaccine used in the US, and there has been no increased incidence of narcolepsy there.
But even if the vaccine is ultimately proven to cause narcoplepsy, there could be a tough battle ahead for adequate compensation for the affected children. GlaxoSmithKline was given a legal indemnity by the Department of Health because, with the pandemic looming, it was not possible to conduct years of tests before rushing the vaccine into production.
Sleep sufferers
Around 30,000 people in the UK have narcolepsy and it also affects animals, including dogs
There is a state compensation scheme for people who suffer ill effects from vaccines, but it is capped at £120,000 and the cost of helping these children through life is expected to amount to considerably more than that.
The future for these children is now unclear. Doctors are unsure how long the condition will last. The seriousness of symptoms can fluctuate, but the condition never goes away.
Professor Paul Gringras, a paediatric sleep consultant at Evelina Children’s Hospital in London who diagnosed Lucio, describes narcolepsy as a lifelong condition.
‘We need further studies to see how it will progress and to see whether there are other cases out there,’ he says.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Pandemrix was developed specifically for use in a flu pandemic when the number of lives lost could have been enormous. The decision to recommend that children got this vaccine was based on evidence available at the time. We keep all emerging evidence under review and that’s why the use of Pandemrix in those less than 20 years old was stopped in the UK in 2011.’
In the meantime, the children affected get through life with the help of a variety of medications — from stimulants such as Ritalin and Modafinil to see them get through their school days to Xyrem, a medicine that can regulate sleep.
But Xyrem can cost up to £13,000 a year and not all NHS Primary Care Trusts will pay for it.
There are the inevitable concerns over the long-term effects of taking powerful stimulants, but Lucio, Robyn and Josh are now, thankfully, coping at school with extra help, from one-on-one academic support to on-site sleeping facilities. The families are now considering bringing legal action against the Department of Health.
Lucio’s mother Karen says: ‘Our children may never be able to drive or hold down a job and, of course, forming relationships may be difficult if you pass out when you are excited or happy.
‘We’ve had to accept that the old Lucio is gone, and we’ve grieved for him. But the new Lucio is fighting this the best he can and we love him just as much.’
|
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
Swine Flu Outbreak
