Swine flu vaccine link to killer nerve disease: Guillian-Barre Syndrome

oramar · Aug 16, 2009

In my opinion this article is playing a little game with the facts, facts are in there but not presented in a clear way. Yes, the 1976 vaccine did cause about some cases of GB(Guillian-Barre). Remember millions of people were vaccinated. So far NO one has gotten GB from this H1N1 vaccine because trials are just starting. After the 1918 pandemic there were across the USA and the world hundreds of thousands of secondary neurological diseases, GB and Parkinsons being the two most prominent. Now days awareness of the connection between swine flu H1N1 and neurological disease has faded but this fact a well know fact as recently as 1960s. I was taught the connection between swine flu and neuro problems(which they called the Spanish Flu back then) in 1966 in nursing school and my text book had pictures of people with sever neuro problems post Spanish flu. Another thing they found out over the years, I was taught this in school in the 60s also, was that people who seemed to recover completely from the Spanish flu in 1918 were much more likely to come down with Parkinson 20, 30, 40 years later. So if you want to avoid the vaccine to avoid the 1 in anywhere from 100,000 to 1 in a million chance of getting a case of GB fine with me. At the same time you must know that you are taking the chance of getting H1N1 swine which also causes multiple serious complications, sever lung conditions, encephalitis and other organ failures in addition there is a chance it will produce GB AND it can cause Parkinsons later in life. The rate of about complications from H1N1 is now for sure yet but it looks like it is about 3 in 100, it is your body and your call. PS They interviewed a woman who had had GB, if you read the article it makes it very clear that her GB was one of the thousands of cases of GB that occur in people spontaneously after they have a virus throughout the world every year. Her case was not connected to a vaccine that I could see. GB mostly affects women and it is thought to be a genetic immune system response to a viral infection, it is not know how a viral vaccine produces the condition but there is no doubt it has done so. My guess, and this is my guess, is that if the vaccine gives you GB the virus would have had a good chance of doing it also. Remember, a large number of people who get GB recovery completely, it can in a small number of cases cause residual nervous sytemn problem. I have worked with several nurses that had GB and recoverd completely.

HonestRN · Aug 16, 2009

Scientists are also looking at the workings of the immune system to find which cells are responsible for beginning and carrying out the attack on the nervous system. The fact that so many cases of Guillain-Barré begin after a viral or bacterial infection suggests that certain characteristics of some viruses and bacteria may activate the immune system inappropriately. Investigators are searching for those characteristics.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/gbs/gbs.htm

perseus29 · Aug 21, 2009

So far NO one has gotten GB from this H1N1 vaccine because trials are just starting.

And even if somebody has a negative reaction to the vaccine, I highly doubt the pharmaceutical companies will come out and advertise the fact that somebody got GB from the vaccine; if anything they will come out and say that the person had a pre existing condition. Kind of like the tasers----some people died afer they get tasered, and taser Inc says that it was because of a pre existing condition. Well, would they still be alive if they didn't get tasered? Nobody will ever know.

mfrancisco · Nov 14, 2009

A 14-year old was just reported as getting GB from the current H1N1 vaccine.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33845867/ns/health-cold_and_flu/

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 14, 2009

from the article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33845867/ns/health-cold_and_flu/

“the doctor said i’ll recover fully, but it’s going to take some time,” the teenager said...
...so far, the federal centers for disease control and prevention have received five reports of gbs in people who received the h1n1 vaccine since oct. 6, not including jordan’s case, said dr. claudia j. vellozzi, deputy director for immunization safety.
out of about 40 million doses of h1n1 vaccine available to date, that’s a far lower rate of gbs than the 1 case that develops in every 1 million people who receive the regular flu vaccine.

1976 swine flu outbreak

...waiting in long lines at schools and clinics, more than 40 million americans -- almost 25% of the population -- received the swine flu vaccine before the program was halted in december after 10 weeks....
overall, there were 1098 cases of guillain-barré syndrome (gbs) recorded nationwide by cdc surveillance, 532 of which occurred after vaccination and 543 before vaccination.[32]
there are about one to two cases of gbs per 100,000 people every year, whether or not people have been vaccinated.[33] the vaccination program seems to have increased this normal risk of developing gbs by about to one extra case per 100,000 vaccinations.[33] the cdc states that most studies on modern influenza vaccines have seen no link with gbs,[33][34][35] although one review gives an incidence of about one case per million vaccinations.[36]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/swine_flu
more than 500 people are thought to have developed guillain-barre syndrome after receiving the vaccine; 25 died.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/27/science/sci-swine-history27?pg=2

the 2009 swine flu has been compared to other similar types of influenza virus in terms of mortality: "in the us it appears that for every 1000 people who get infected, about 40 people need admission to hospital and about one person dies." [57]

http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/05/25/take-a-deep-breath-swine-flus-not-that-bad/

indigo girl · Nov 14, 2009

A 14-year old was just reported as getting GB from the current H1N1 vaccine.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33845867/ns/health-cold_and_flu/

From your link:

Boy diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, but CDC says no clear link
So far, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have received five reports of GBS in people who received the H1N1 vaccine since Oct. 6, not including Jordan’s case, said Dr. Claudia J. Vellozzi, deputy director for immunization safety.
Out of about 40 million doses of H1N1 vaccine available to date, that’s a far lower rate of GBS than the 1 case that develops in every 1 million people who receive the regular flu vaccine.
But Vellozzi said there’s no clear link between the new vaccine and the disease.
“We know that GBS and other illnesses occur routinely in the U.S.,” Vellozzi said, noting that 80 to 120 cases are diagnosed each week in the general population.

Cause and effect is unclear. If 80 to 120 cases are diagnosed each week and someone happens to have had the vaccine, does it mean that it was caused by the vax? No.

We do know that an estimated 36,000 kids have been hospitalized with swine flu from April to mid October and over 500 have died since then. No medication or vaccine is without some risk, but it would appear that the odds of a severe outcome are far greater from the flu, imo.

mfrancisco · Nov 14, 2009

That is why I put the link so everyone can read it. I am not necessarily for or against the vaccine. I think there are valid points for both sides of the argument. Thank you to both of you for taking time to read the link that I posted. My statement before the link is a fact...I wasn't trying to say you should not get the vaccine, and that is why I posted the article. Everyone needs to be informed with up to date information on the vaccine.

oramar · Nov 15, 2009

There was an article over on yahoo saying that a youth got GB with in a few HOURS of getting the flu shot. I am puzzling over this because it take more than 18 hours for a large scale immune reaction to get under way. I am not saying it could not happen I am just puzzling. During the flu outbreaks of the past I knew nurses that came down with flu and then GBU as a result of exposure at work. It always took more than two days and as many as 5 to a week. The did not get the condition from the vaccine because I am talking about outbreaks of the late 60s when there were no vaccines. Everyone of them made a complete recovery by the way.

Music in My Heart · Nov 15, 2009

Yes, the 1976 vaccine did cause about some cases of GB(Guillian-Barre). Remember millions of people were vaccinated.

I think it would be more accurate to say that the vaccine was associated with some cases of GBS. So far as I'm aware, causality was never determined and they're not sure why those folks acquired GBS.

Correlation does not equal causation.