| The Word is Out: Unusually High Number
of H1N1 Vaccine Reactions in Canada
Since vaccination campaigns began in forty countries, an unusually
high number of severe allergic reactions after the H1N1 vaccine
have been recorded recently in Canada where a vaccine batch from
the pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been recalled
said the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) have
been criticized by the decision
to approve the Arepanrix
vaccine without any safety
or efficacy testing on a single Canadian.
"The Canadian authorities will conduct research" necessary
to establish the causes of these allergies, says a spokesman for
WHO. He assured that the WHO did not change the current recommendations
for widespread vaccination. "We must first understand what
happened in Canada, "insisted the spokesman.
To date, health authorities were reporting 36 cases of severe
reactions on people vaccinated.
The WHO has been on the hot spot several times to counter widespread
accusations that the H1N1 vaccines were rushed through regulatory
procedures to speed up their manufacture. The WHO
reiterated Friday that the vaccines were still "effective"
despite cases of mutations of the virus recorded in Norway in
particular.
According to the organization, as for the thirty plus deaths reported
in the context of large-scale vaccinations, there is no evidence
at this time to link the deaths with the vaccine. Cases
of adverse side effects were reported from 10 000 doses of vaccine
administered. Of 100 adverse events, five are serious, including
death, they said.
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A full list of h1n1 vaccine ingredients, alerts and warnings.
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