EU: no safety concerns as 10 million get H1N1 shots
Thu Dec 3, 2009 11:36am GMT
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5B224520091203?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=401
LONDON (Reuters) - Some 10 million people across the European Union have now been vaccinated against H1N1 swine flu and so far no unexpected serious safety issues have been identified, the region’s drugs watchdog said on Thursday.
The most frequent adverse reactions have been fever, nausea, headache, allergic reactions and injection site pain, but these were mostly non-serious and had been expected, the European Medicines Agency said.
The safety update is the first analysis of adverse reactions following the roll-out of three vaccines across Europe — GlaxoSmithKline’s Pandemrix, Novartis’s Focetria and Baxter’s Celvapan.
New clinical trial data did show a greater incidence of fever following the second dose of Pandemrix in babies from 6 to 35 months and an assessment of that data was ongoing, the agency added.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Greg Mahlich
Memories of 1957
Thu Dec 3 2009
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/733511—memories-of-1957
Q: Once you have the H1N1 flu, are you immune to it?
A: If you’ve already had H1N1, you have protection, but only if you’re exposed to the same strain of the virus that laid you low. Once your immune system encounters a bug, it creates memory cells that rapidly produce antibodies to fight a second attack of the same bug. That’s called acquired immunity, and it’s the same process that occurs when you get a flu shot that contains a killed version of the virus.
That sounds great, but the unfortunate fact is flu viruses mutate all the time to avoid the killers, so the next time you encounter H1N1, it might be slightly different and your immune system might not recognize it. But a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests you still might have partial immunity, so a bout with the new, “improved” H1N1 might not be as severe as your first. The CDC found that those born before 1957 are less likely to get this flu and, when they do, get a mild case because they were previously infected with a similar virus, which left some helpful antibodies behind – not strong enough for a total virus smackdown, but enough to lessen symptoms.
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