A new Swedish study shows that
all Swedes who developed narcolepsy from the swine flu vaccine
Pandemrix received the vaccine from 12 of the 35 batches,
despite the Swedish Medical Products Agency’s (Läkemedelsverket)
previous claim that no such connection exists.
“We will have to think again,” said Maria Szirmai of the Swedish
Medical Products Agency to newspaper Göteborgsposten (GP).
Over 220 Swedes, most of them children, developed narcolepsy as a
side effect from the Swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, according to the
reports filed with insurance
company
Läkemedelsförsäkringen.
All these had received the vaccine from some 12 of the 35 batches of
vaccine delivered to Sweden.
From 23 of the 35
shipments there is no recorded case of anyone
developing the condition, according to the study, which was carried
out by the Swedish Narcolepsy Association (Narkolepsiföreningen).
The association traced the vaccine through the batch number on the
side of the boxes.
Their findings will now be investigated by the agency, which has
previously denied any connection between different vaccine shipments
and the onset of narcolepsy.
In some parts of Sweden, namely in counties
Skåne,
Västra Götaland,
Dalarna
and
Uppland, there are more children affected by narcolepsy than
anywhere else in the country, which has so far flummoxed
researchers.
Over half a million Swedes were vaccinated against swine flu with
Pandemrix between autumn 2009 and
spring 2010.
TT/The Local/rm
twitter.com/thelocalsweden