October 14, 2003 – The influenza vaccine would not make multiple sclerosis worse, says an American organization.
At the request of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Institute of Medicine (IM), a nonprofit that advises the U.S. government on health matters, investigated the possibility that a link may exist between the flu shot and diseases like multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a form of temporary paralysis.
MI concludes that the vaccine does not make multiple sclerosis worse. However, he refuses to comment categorically on the possibility that it could cause the disease, since an insufficient number of studies have so far been carried out on the matter. With regard to Guillain-Barré syndrome, MI says it cannot say whether the vaccine increases the risk of suffering from it.
Doubts about the safety of the vaccine have remained since 1976, when the CDC launched a mass vaccination campaign. At least 532 of the 46 million people who received the vaccine at that time went on to suffer from Guillain-Barré syndrome, seven times the usual incidence.
The CDC is due to decide next week whether it will recommend the vaccine for children aged six to 23 months from now on. MI believes that closer monitoring of side effects associated with the vaccine should be done beforehand.
Health Canada estimates that between 500 and 1,500 people die each year in the country from complications from the flu. The agency strongly recommends vaccination, except for children under the age of six months or people with egg allergies.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to Health News; October 7, 2003.
