Published in the UK’s Daily Mail 15 August 2009
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.
Top priority will be given to everyone aged six months to 65 with an underlying health problem, pregnant women and health professionals.
The British Neurological Surveillance Unit (BNSU), part of the British Association of Neurologists, has been asked to monitor closely any cases of GBS as the vaccine is rolled out.
One senior neurologist said last night: ‘I would not have the swine
flu jab because of the GBS risk.’
There are concerns that there could be a repeat of what became known as the ‘1976 debacle’ in the US, where a swine flu vaccine killed 25 people – more than the virus itself.
A mass vaccination was given the go-ahead by President Gerald Ford because scientists believed that the swine flu strain was similar to the one responsible for the 1918-19 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans and 20million people worldwide.
No, it is not all made in the same way. Get your facts straight. Here’s some info from one of the President’s favorite websites PMSNBC that says you are incorrect....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32672322/ns/health-swine_flu/
Shot made with component not licensed in U.S.
It is still unclear, however, what this would mean for the global swine flu supply. Not every drugmaker could simply copy Novartis’ vaccine recipe. Novartis’ vaccine was made using cell culture, while about 90 percent of the world’s flu vaccines are made using chicken eggs.
Their vaccine also included adjuvants, a chemical component used to stretch a vaccine’s active ingredient and essentially make it more efficient. While adjuvants are commonly used in European flu vaccines, there are no licensed flu vaccines in the U.S. or Canada with the ingredients.
There is also limited data on how safe flu vaccines with adjuvants are in pregnant women and children, two of the groups thought most vulnerable in a pandemic, or global epidemic.
The vaccine approved by China did not use an adjuvant, like most of the vaccines being tested in the U.S.
A handful of other major pharmaceuticals, including Sanofi-Aventis SA, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Baxter International are also conducting trials of their own swine flu vaccines, but have not yet announced results.