Another article-Flu shot linked to GB Disease | Arthritis Information

 

Hard to read anything with the " Subscribe Now "  Box taking up the pageoh  no...sorry..  i was able to read it the first time, then went back into it and that box popped up. i was hoping it wouldnt do that with anyone else. oh well.http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE58F3A720090916

[quote]Flu experts gear up for pandemic of vaccine worry
Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:04pm EDT


By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One million heart attacks, 700,000 strokes and 900,000 miscarriages -- U.S. public health officials want Americans to know these will happen every single year with or without a swine flu vaccine campaign.

Yet this year, they know a significant number will be blamed on the H1N1 vaccine, which will roll out within weeks, and they are struggling to be ready.

They expect an avalanche of so-called adverse event reports, which are reports of death, illness or other health trauma that occur within two weeks after receiving treatment -- in this case, the swine flu vaccine.

"We are going to be overwhelmed with potential events," said Mike Osterholm, a public health expert at the University of Minnesota.

"Anything that happens to anybody in the period of seven to 14 days after vaccination will be reported."

And not just to U.S. officials. The World Health Organization is trying to reassure a global audience that vaccines being made by 25 different companies, with various formulations, are all safe.

"If we have a safety signal in one country it could stop vaccination efforts in others," WHO's top flu expert Dr Keiji Fukuda told a meeting of infectious disease specialists organized by the U.S. Institute of Medicine this week.

Flu experts themselves have little doubt the vaccine being made against H1N1 is safe. It is made using precisely the same technology as the annual seasonal flu vaccine, which is given to hundreds of millions of people every year.

But because H1N1 is new, vaccine makers have been testing it to learn what the right dose is.[/quote]

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/gbs_qa.htm

[quote]

How common is GBS, and how common is it after people are vaccinated for seasonal influenza?
GBS is rare. Each year, about 3,000 to 6,000 people in the United States develop GBS whether or not they received a vaccination – that’s 1 to 2 people out of every 100,000 people. This is referred to as the background rate.

In 1976, there was a small risk of GBS following influenza (swine flu) vaccination (approximately 1 additional case per 100,000 people who received the swine flu vaccine). That number of GBS cases was slightly higher than the background rate for GBS. Since then, numerous studies have been done to evaluate if other flu vaccines were associated with GBS. In most studies, no association was found, but two studies suggested that approximately 1 additional person out of 1 million vaccinated people may be at risk for GBS associated with the seasonal influenza vaccine. It is important to keep in mind that severe illness and possible death can be associated with influenza, and vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza infection and its complications.[/quote]

It would be quite possible to exchange page after page of links, articles, theories, and ideas concerning GBS (Guillain-Barré syndrome) and flu vaccines: pros and cons. I think that the important thing to look at, look for, and look through are causation versus coincidence.

Cheers, best wishes, and a flu-free season! Shug

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