Back in 2009, a nasty strain of the flu, namely swine flu, raced around the globe knocking people down like bowling pins.
The first reports of this new flu came out of Mexico in April and had a unique composition of genes that had never before been detected in humans or animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Several weeks later, swine flu surfaced on both coasts of the United states and quickly gained momentum.
The World Health Organization (WHO) labeled it a pandemic and pharma companies began the urgent task of creating flu vaccines that would be capable of protecting people from the H1N1 strain. A year later, WHO estimated number of those who had died from the swine flu at 200,000, but it is thought to have reached 300,o00 when factoring in people who died from co-morbidities, like cardiovascular events.
When the swine flu abated, a strange thing happened.
Reports of narcolepsy arose, a neurological condition that causes people to have excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, and people not being able to stay awake and alert.
And the most interesting part is almost all of the reported narcolepsy cases were from Europe and Africa, while the United States remained virtually unaffected. Now the question became: “Why?”
After careful study, it was determined that the vaccines used in Europe and Africa had NOT been approved for use in the United States.
The most widely distributed vaccines distributed to the African and European people, Pandemrix, showed a link to narcolepsy, with the association most prominent in children from Sweden and Finland.
In the rush to protect people from swine flu, Pandemrix did not have the safety studies that are usually carried out before a drug is approved. As it turned out, Pandemrix was the only vaccine used in Sweden and Finland, and after the findings were released, its use has been greatly restricted.
Flu vaccines remain an important part of protecting people from grave illness. When all was said and done, more than 31 million doses of Pandemrix were administered, and from that, there were roughly 900 cases of narcolepsy in six countries reported. To put that in perspective, it was reported that more than 280,000 deaths resulted from swine flu among the unvaccinated.
