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Lisa Schnirring at CIDRAP news gives us an update on the safety profile of the H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine, roughly five months after it was first made available in this country.
As you may remember, there was tremendous media speculation over the safety of this vaccine, and much noise was made by anti-vaccine activists – some of whom went so far as to predict `more deaths from the vaccine than from the flu’.
Obviously that didn’t happen. Nor have we seen an explosion (predicted by some) of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological condition linked to the 1976 swine flu shot.
Like all vaccines, the pandemic flu shot carries with it small, but tangible risks. When you give millions of shots, it is expected that there will be thousands of adverse reactions.
Most will be minor – but a few could be life threatening.
Lisa brings us the latest details on the vaccine’s safety profile. Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
CDC: Pandemic vaccine safety record still matches seasonal vaccine
Lisa Schnirring
Staff Writer
Mar 5, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Nearly 5 months after its launch, the pandemic H1N1 vaccine still appears to have a safety profile similar to that of seasonal flu vaccines, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update yesterday.
The CDC's report summarizes reports that it collected through its Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) through Feb 26. The VAERS system is designed to identify potential problems that require further investigation, but it does not determine if the adverse event was caused by the vaccine. The CDC cautions that the VAERS reports are submitted voluntarily by anyone who thinks an adverse event may have occurred and often include incorrect or incomplete information.
So far, 127 million doses of pandemic vaccine have been shipped to providers, but the CDC added that the precise number of doses that have been administered is not known. (In mid February, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius estimated that 70 million Americans had received the vaccine so far.) The VAERS system has received 10,172 adverse event reports for the pandemic vaccine, of which 93% are classified as "nonserious," such as injection-site soreness.
