29 cases of sleeping sickness related to the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix were reported in Germany
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 a "causal context between the flu vaccine and narcolepsy". According to official information, 29 patient cases among vaccinated people in Germany have now been reported.
29 cases related to swine flu vaccine In addition to other European countries, cases have now been reported in Germany that establish a connection between the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix and narcolepsy triggered. Between 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 children (19) and ten adults. After the ebb of the influenza, flu vaccine is no longer used in Germany.
According to a spokesman for the institute, there was a confirmed diagnosis for “thirteen children and adolescents. "The disease could also be diagnosed with certainty in eight adults. However, the symptoms appeared much later in the adults than in the children. In an adult case, there was around 12 months between vaccination and the appearance of symptoms. The institute is here for responsible for the safety of vaccines.
Causes still unclear Why, according to previous studies, the swine flu vaccine increases the risk of sleeping sickness cannot be scientifically explained. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) suspects that an interaction with genetic factors could play a role. Furthermore, the experts suspect that additional influences such as certain infectious diseases, in particular respiratory diseases, could be partly responsible. However, the exact mechanisms are largely unknown and could not be determined by studies carried out to date.
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 around 4,000 patients have a confirmed diagnosis. The Paul Ehrlich Institute reports that one in a million children in Germany fall ill every year. In the event of an outbreak, those affected usually suffer from sudden compulsion to sleep, loss of muscle tension, an unnatural sleep rhythm and sleep paralysis. The symptoms usually vary in frequency and severity. To date, it has not been finally clarified how and why the disease develops. Doctors assume that environmental influences and genetic pre-pollution are the likely triggers.
Three studies conducted in Sweden, Ireland and Finland had found increased cases among children and adolescents among vaccinated children and adolescents. According to the study data, the risk after a Pandemrix vaccination increases to 3.6 to 6 additional cases per 100,000 minors. There is still no study that would have explicitly investigated this question in Germany.
Vaccine should no longer be injected into children. There is therefore no one hundred percent clarity about the cases in Germany. Because the exact trigger is not yet known, the institute does not want to commit itself. "No mechanism is currently known or plausible as to how vaccination could trigger a disease as complex as narcolepsy." However, the PEI now advises that the vaccine should only be used in children and adolescents if swine flu is rampant and no other active ingredient The EMA had already severely restricted the use of the vaccine last year and only recommended it if "protection against the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus is urgently required, but no trivalent flu vaccine with the corresponding virus component is available. “There will be no study similar to that in Finland or Sweden in Germany for the time being. (Sb)
Sleeping sickness due to swine flu vaccine
Flu increases the risk of narcolepsy
Swine flu vaccine causes narcolepsy
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