More to think about - Pandemrix & narcolepsy

[serenbat]

http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinical-zones/childrens-nursing/hpa-warns-of-link-between-narcolepsy-and-flu-vaccine/5055482.article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/pandemrix-narcolepsy_n_2769132.html

apparently it didn't show up in the trails only afterwards 

[Mirzam]

Link to more media reports

http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/children-get-narcolepsy-from-flu-vaccine/

Here is the study 

http://www.bmj.com/highwire/filestream/633293/field_highwire_article_pdf/0/bmj.f794.full.pdf

[Taximom5]

It's important to remember that narcolepsy is a form of seizure disorder.

In other words, this vaccine caused brain damage.

[MissCee]

One of my closest friends is dealing with this right now with her youngest child. She received the H1N1 shot and was diagnosed with narcolepsy . . she's on medication to try and control it, but it's gotten so bad that she can't even do some of the most basic things without help now :-( Thanks for posting these links ladies.

What's more worrisome to me is that (unless I'm mistaken) the H1N1 vaccine is now included in the seasonal flu vaccine . . at least that's what I remember reading. God only knows how many more people this could effect if that is truly the case.

[serenbat]

Quote:

One of my closest friends is dealing with this right now with her youngest child. She received the H1N1 shot and was diagnosed with narcolepsy

at least she know a diagnoses! 

you also have to wonder (as with other things as well) how many cases in the beginning were simply dismissed, missed diagnosed, etc and not recored - how large is this? we will most likely only know after more are shot up

[prosciencemum]

Unfortunately trials have limited sizes, so post license tracking which is done can pick up these risks. Good to know they have now stopped using this type of the vaccine while further safety checking proceeds. 

From the Huffington post article: 

Quote:

In total, more than 30 million doses of the GSK shot were given in 47 mainly European countries during the H1N1 flu pandemic. It was not used in the United States

Also there is no link to the current H1N1 virus included in the seasonal flu shots. This was a vaccine developed for the pandemic year, and if you read the article you can see it's the adjuvant that's slightly different and that is being investigated over these links to narcolepsy. 

A good insight into the process of on going post licensing safety checks for vaccines. 

There's another Huffington Post article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/pandemrix-narcolepsy-swine-flu-shot-britain_n_2588859.html which more details. 

Quote:

Narcolepsy is a complex and life-long sleep disorder which is generally estimated to affect between 0.02 and 0.05 percent of the population, or between 200 and 500 people per million.

The studies suggest people who got pandremix where 14-16 times more likely to develop narcolepsy. So that's 0.28-0.8% of people instead of 0.02-0.05%. 

Over all they estimate an additional 800 people in Europe developed narcolepsy as a result of 30 million doses of pandremix being administered. 

[emmy526]

I wondered at that time of the pandemic when they were pushing the vax, what the untold consequences were going to be, of pushing a vax that had not been tested thoroughly enough....sad that pharma had to put profits before people.  

[prosciencemum]

Originally Posted by emmy526 

I wondered at that time of the pandemic when they were pushing the vax, what the untold consequences were going to be, of pushing a vax that had not been tested thoroughly enough....sad that pharma had to put profits before people.  

I think it's a bit oversimplistic to say they pushed this through too quickly just because of a desire for profits. Sure pharmaceutical companies want to make a profit, so I'm not saying that's not part of the picture, but it's not all of it. 

Part of the reason for pushing the version of the vaccine with this adjuvant, over the other version which was used in the USA, was the fact that it is more effective. Think back to 2009 and we might now think it was silly people were so concerned about H1N1, but at the time there seemed genuine concern that it would be a serious pandemic, so a more effective vaccine to improve herd immunity must have seemed a good idea. If it was just about money, the safer version of the vaccine used in the US could have been sold, presumably for a comparable profit (which tends to be very low for vaccines compared to other drugs, but that's a debate to go over yet again in another thread if we must!).

Of course the pandemic wasn't as bad as feared (something which the widespread vaccination program must have contributed to), so with hindsight it looks like a bad idea to have pushed this new version without more extended testing. But once they found a serious sign of increased side effects they stopped using it, and admitted it in the mainstream press.

[WildKingdom]

Originally Posted by Taximom5 

It's important to remember that narcolepsy is a form of seizure disorder.

In other words, this vaccine caused brain damage.

Sorry, this is incorrect. Narcolepsy is not a type of seizure disorder. However, it is often misdiagnosed as a seizure disorder, since attacks of cataplexy can look like a seizure.

[Mirzam]

Increased Immune Complexes of Hypocretin Autoantibodies in Narcolepsy

Conclusion

Central hypersomnias and particularly narcolepsy-cataplexy are characterized by higher serum levels of autoantibodies directed against hypocretin-1 which are present as immune complexes most likely with anti-idiotypic autoantibodies suggesting their relevance to the mechanism of sleep-wake cycle regulation.