Man suffers life-threatening reaction to swine flu vaccine

Man suffers life-threatening reaction to swine flu vaccine

Published: 4 Nov 09 08:28 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091104-23009.html

A 30-year-old in Düsseldorf has been the first German patient to suffer life-threatening health complications from a swine flu vaccination, daily Rheinische Post reported on Wednesday.

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After receiving the Pandemrix shot at a general practitioner’s office over the weekend, the patient complained of dizziness, shaking and irregular breathing before going into anaphylactic shock and losing consciousness, the paper reported.

The doctor was able to stabilise the patient and alert emergency services, which transported him to a nearby hospital. He was released later the same day.

According to a Düsseldorf city spokesperson, such a reaction to the A/H1N1 vaccination is “very seldom,” and can also be caused by other vaccinations.

A spokesperson from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which manages vaccines for the government, said the incident had been registered, but added that experts needed to investigate the matter further to determine exactly what caused the man’s negative reaction to the vaccination.

On Monday the national disease control and prevention agency, the Robert Koch Institute, reported that the number of new swine flu infections had doubled in just two days – confirming predictions that a wave would spread this autumn.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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09:10 November 4, 2009 by leeza
And, gotta love the fearmongering here. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that the man had an anaphylactic reaction to some agent in the vaccine. Which is something that cannot be avoided or predicted - if he himself was not aware of a deadly allergy and taking precautions to avoid it, how could anyone else know? I really would bet it has nothing to do with the vaccine itself.
09:21 November 4, 2009 by fraufruit
I'm sure that there are cases of "life-threatening health complications" from many medications every day.
10:17 November 4, 2009 by The-ex-pat
So "life threatening" was his condition after having the jab that he was released from hospital the same day!
10:48 November 4, 2009 by Hasilein
Well, if I understand anaphylactic shock correctly, it leads to immediate drop in blood pressure and cuts off breathing - which IS indeed deadly in just a few minutes if it's not treated.
16:08 November 4, 2009 by Celeon
I would not exactly call that fear mongering.

"Very seldom" means that similar flu shots lead very seldom to anaphylactic reactions within the usual numbers in which people get their normal seasonal flu shots.

But this time we talk about shots for 30 million people which has never been done before. Logically the number of allergic reactions rises with the number of people getting shots.

50 to 100 deaths due to anaphylactic reactions out of 30 million for instance would be "very seldom" from a medical point of view but of course outrageous from that of the public opinion. However there is nothing that can be done against that.

The only thing you can do is either hope that you're not one of the 100 or simply dont get the shot and take your risk with the flu.

But If swine flu should mutate to a deadlier form in its second or third wave (exactly what happened with the spanish flu of 1918) and people start to die in big numbers, then nobody will care about the allergic risk anyway and start standing in line to get their shots asap.
16:21 November 4, 2009 by AliceBee
@ leeza / fraufruit / The-ex-pat

You call watching your husband have a pipe shoved down his throat after he stopped breathing a joke? The wife is a personal friend and he did nearly die. No fear mongering with this story.
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