The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has received 69 reports of narcolepsy or catalepsy attributed to last winter’s vaccine campaign against the H1N1, or swine flu virus.
In all, THL has received around 900 reports of complications arising from the flu shots, nearly 200 of which have been categorised as serious.
A THL working group has calculated in its report in February that the vaccine led to a nine-fold increase in the risk of children and young people to come down with narcolepsy, especially if some other factors were present.
The researchers have not found any indications that the vaccine used in Finland would have differed from lots of the vaccine that were used in other countries. Those who came down with the disease ranged in age from four to 19.
Sufferers of narcolepsy are prone to falling asleep without warning. Catalepsy involves the sudden stiffening of muscles.
