Is the Swine Flu Vaccine Safe?

Washington, DCThe concern over the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic, not to mention President Obama's declaration last week that swine flu is now a national emergency, has put everyone on alert with regard to the vaccine and any potential drug side effects inherent with the swine flu vaccine. Given that the H1N1 flu vaccine is not yet universally available in the US, the vaccine debate is somewhat muted.

Compare that to Canada, where vaccines are already available and currently being administered with sufficient supply to guarantee every Canadian who wants one, a shot. In Canada therefore, the debate is heightened…

Is the swine flu vaccine safe?

The Internet is flooded with content—a lot of it propaganda—about the swine flu vaccine. Patients are urged to talk directly to their health care professional for the latest and most accurate information about the vaccine, only to read on the Internet that doctors cannot be trusted and don't know the whole story, or are themselves being fed propaganda by pharmaceutical sales reps intent on helping their employers reap billions in profits from the use of swine flu vaccines and other products.

The journal NewScientist traces concern back to 1976, when the death of a US army recruit triggered fears of a repeat of the 1918 pandemic. Thus, 48 million Americans were given a swine flu vaccine that proved to be a grave health concern for 532 patients who developed Guillain-Barre syndrome. NewScientist reported on October 21st that most people recover from the paralytic condition, but not all—25 died after the 1976 inoculation and others suffered lasting health issues.

However, that was 1976. Vaccines are manufactured to updated standards today. NewScientist makes the point that the 1976 vaccine caused about 10 cases per million vaccinated. And yet ordinary flu vaccines are thought to cause one extra case of Guillain-Barre per million, on top of the 10 to 20 per million who experience Guillain-Barre in some other way, each year.

Further, a 2009 study found that out of every million people who contract the flu, between 40 and 70 develop Guillain-Barre anyway, regardless of vaccine use.

There has also been concern over the preservative thimerosal, which contains ethyl mercury and has been used in vaccines since the 1930s to prevent inadvertent bacterial and fungal contamination of multi-dose vials.

However, according to Paul A. Offit, M.D., the chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children s Hospital of Philadelphia, the concern over thimerosal is overblown.

Writing in the October 22nd edition of the Providence Journal-Bulletin of Rhode Island, Dr. Offit traced the concern back to a request made by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Public Health Service, which dictated in 1999 that thimerosal be removed from single-dose vials of all vaccines. The move fostered a perception that thimerosal led to autism or mercury poisoning.

In defending thimerosal, Dr. Offit makes reference to recent studies that found infants could safely receive eight times as much mercury as is contained in the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. He also notes that there is a sufficient supply of thimerosal-free vaccine to inoculate all children under the age of six, but that such availability does not suggest that doses containing thimerosal are unsafe.

The health care industry is virtually unanimous in stating that there is a greater risk of becoming extremely sick, or dying from swine flu than from the effects of the swine flu vaccine—especially high-risk groups.

That said, the thought of ingesting trace amounts of the ethyl mercury found in thimerosal, and the risk of Guillain-Barre continues to foster much debate. The latter adverse reaction is not pleasant.

Richard Ryan, a Canadian from New Westminster in British Columbia, developed the condition two weeks after getting his annual seasonal flu shot in 2007. He began to experience some numbness. A subsequent check of his reflexes at a BC hospital found that he had none. By the time the exam was over in the emergency room, he couldn't get up.

He would go on to spend ten weeks in hospital, including three weeks in intensive care, barely able to breathe or eat for himself, according to a report from CBC.ca.

"My face was paralyzed. I had no feeling inside my mouth. I couldn't feel my tongue. My left eye wouldn't close so it had to be taped shut to sleep," he said.

The illness progressed into a lifelong condition known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), and a year later he remained heavily medicated, unable to work, and was experiencing memory problems. He is in his mid-forties.
For Ryan, even though Guillain-Barre is in remission, he is not expected to make a full recovery. The chronic condition could return at any point in the future.