Tracking Vaccine Injuries

[indigo girl]

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/health/dpgo_101309_woman_disabled_by_flu_shot_reaction_dystonia_4027780

Vaccine injuries are rare occurrences . With large numbers of people being vaccinated, we may well likely hear other stories. Hopefully, they will be very rare. This is a very sad story of a young woman that had a reaction to the seasonal flu vaccine.

It is as important to track these cases as it is to track deaths from the flu.

An Ashburn, Virginia woman is in the fight of her life after suffering a very rare side effect to the seasonal flu shot.

The vast majority of doctors say flu shots are safe. In this case, the FDA says they found nothing wrong with this particular batch, but sometimes there are complications.

That's apparently what happened to Desiree Jennings, and now her life will never be the same.

At 26 years old, Desiree Jennings was the picture of health. She's a Washington Redskins cheerleader and an avid runner. Her life changed forever on August 23 when she says she got a seasonal flu shot at a local grocery store.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92392&catid=158

5 cases in over a billion shots over 18 years.

I am not convinced it is the vaccine.

[indigo girl]

Thanks for the link:

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92392&catid=158

The CDC says its Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting Systems or VAERS reveals there have been 5 reports since 1991 of people suffering from dystonia after a billion doses of seasonal flu vaccines were administered.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Hey ,the CDC has a handy dandy VAERS tracker. They are reporting THREE episodes of dystonia ever for ALL flu vaccines.

http://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html

You have to enter the request.

[indigo girl]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33315130

A nurse was stricken with a rare nerve disorder that can cause paralysis two weeks after receiving a seasonal flu shot, the New York State Health Department confirmed Wednesday.

...doctors have not proven a link between the vaccine the nurse received on August 31st and her illness, noting that she had traveled to India before getting the seasonal flu shot.

"At this point there is nothing in the medical record to indicate that the Syndrome was caused by her seasonal flu vaccine," said Hutton.

New York City health officials said they "participated in a joint investigation and forwarded the results to the Centers for Disease Control" but declined to detail those findings.

According to the national institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, "usually Guillain-Barré occurs a few days or weeks after the patient has had symptoms of a respiratory or gastrointestinal viral infection. Occasionally, surgery or vaccinations will trigger the syndrome."

An average of 200 to 300 people a year contract the syndrome in New York state and most recover, said the Department of Health.

(hat tip pfi/pixie)