Death link to swine flu vaccine

HEALTH officials have warned doctors of possible similarities between the new swine flu vaccine and a jab linked to 25 deaths in America in the 1970s.

The government’s Health Protection Agency (HPA), said in a letter to neurologists that they needed to look out for increases in cases of a brain disorder that might follow the launch of the immunisation programme.

The letter has been sent because of concerns sparked by studying of the swine flu vaccination campaign in America.

In 1976, Washington rushed in a mass immunisation programme against a swine flu outbreak that was confined to a single military base.

Several hundred cases of a rare, lethal, paralysing neurological disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) were reported afterwards, and although no clear link was ever found to the vaccine, the incident made many people mistrustful of immunisations.

Although the swine flu virus vaccine now close to completion is different from the one used in 1976, the HPA said the earlier incident nevertheless highlighted a possible area of concern.

“The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use,” Professor Elizabeth Miller, head of the HPA’s immunisation department, wrote in the letter sent last month to neurologists.

“GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out.”

The Department of Health said: “Appropriate trials to assess safety and immune responses have been carried out on vaccines very similar to the swine flu vaccine. The vaccines have been shown to have a good safety profile.”

The World Health Organisation has also said recently that the public should be “reassured” about the safety of the new vaccine. It acknowledged that “genuine adverse events directly caused by the vaccine may also occur, but cannot be predicted in advance”.

The NHS will monitor any possible risks from the vaccine, including a possible connection with GBS.

GlaxoSmithKline is developing the vaccine in Germany for an immunisation programme due to start in October.

Some 9.4m people in England will receive the vaccine if they fall into priority groups, alongside 2.1m frontline health and social care workers. In Scotland 1.4m people in either at-risk groups or working in health and social care will get the jab.

Priority will be given to those aged six months to 65 years in high-risk groups – including those with asthma, diabetes, heart disease, renal disease or with a compromised immune system.