Swine Flu Vaccine Tested Following Sleep Disorder Fears

The European Medicines Agency is probing the safety of Pandemrix, a swine flu vaccine, after fears that the treatment could be linked to a rare sleeping disorder.

Pandemrix, which is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, is set to be investigated due to fears that the vaccine could cause people to suddenly fall asleep. Officials in Finland have decided to stop administering the swine flu treatment after reports of narcolepsy in people who had received the injection.

Reported cases

It is thought that around 30 million people across Europe have received the treatment. So far, there have been 27 reported cases of sleeping disorders across the continent, in Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, and Norway, that could be linked the H1N1 virus vaccine.

“Although the cases of narcolepsy have been reported in temporal association with the use of Pandemrix, it is at present not known if the vaccine caused the disorder” said the European Medicines Agency in a statement. “The Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) will look carefully at all of the available data to determine whether there is evidence for a causal association.”

Officials are now set to investigate whether these cases are a direct result of the influenza treatment, or whether they are just normal cases of narcolepsy.

“Information surrounding the reported cases remains limited at the current time,” said a GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson. “GSK is conducting its own investigation in an effort to gather as much additional data as possible regarding the observed cases and is working closely with the regulatory authorities, including the European Medicines Agency”.

Since the outbreak of the Swine Flu pandemic last year, there have been many vaccines invented to combat influenza such as Tamiflu and Relenza. There are no worries of narcolepsy surrounding any other similar treatments at the present time. Patients who are worried about Influenza are advised to contact a doctor to discuss any issues.