One year after the start of mass vaccination against influenza A WHO declares that an investigation will be initiated to determine if this vaccine is related to an increase in cases of narcolepsy in children and adolescents.
Narcolepsy is a rare sleep disorder that makes a person suddenly sleepy to the point of falling asleep without realizing it.
As they comment, the cases began to be observed in August of last year: "Since August 2010, and after massive vaccinations against the H1N1 flu virus in 2009, cases of narcolepsy were detected in children and adolescents in at least 12 countries"In Babies and more we already echoed this news in summer and apparently an investigation was initiated in Sweden. Now, with more cases in more countries, the research will be carried out worldwide.
The information in this regard is still incomplete, since the 12 countries are not known (although we do know that Spain is not one of them), nor is the exact relationship between narcolepsy cases and flu vaccines known.
In the absence of more information, and while the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) conducts research in this regard, the decision has been made not to withdraw the vaccine from the market and continue recommending vaccination "because the risk-benefit of contracting the flu against the possibility of narcolepsy shows that it is better to continue immunizing"The complete and final report on the relationship between narcolepsy and this vaccine will be made public on August 31 of this year.
With regard to the type of vaccine administered (since they were used by several manufacturers), there seems to be a fairly direct relationship with the vaccine Pandemrixfrom the laboratories GlaxoSmithKline.
Last week the WHO announced that it was investigating an increase in cases of narcolepsy in Finland that could be related to this vaccine, since 90% of those affected seemed to have received the vaccine Pandemrix. The Government of Finland commented that Narcolepsy cases occurred in children between 4 and 19 years old and decided to discontinue the sale of the vaccine until it determined more specifically the possible side effects.
As a fact, comment that the cases of narcolepsy have been quantified in one of every 12,000 children aged 4 to 19 vaccinated.
We will continue pending news about it, since it is a subject with a lot of history behind (remember the intense controversy with which the flu vaccines came to last year).
