The silence is almost deafening in the American press when it comes to information about the potentially lethal link between swine flu vaccine and the dreaded nerve disorder of Guillain-Barre syndrome, some health officials say.
But information about the link recently reached the public in the United Kingdom in two letters leaked to the Daily Mail. The letters were addressed to 600 senior British neurologists. One was from the UK’s Health Protection Agency and the other, from the Association of British Neurologists.
The specter of Guillain-Barre is too dangerous to be ignored, and news that the swine flu vaccine might cause it should not be soft-pedaled in the United States, some health officials say.
Guillain-Barre syndrome is an incurable autoimmune disorder that ravages the protective sheathing of the nerves, affecting the brain and the spinal cord.
It can cause death or permanent disability, or even paralysis to the point that patients must be put on respirators to breathe.
Although no one knows its exact cause, physicians know it can be triggered by surgery or by vaccinations such as the swine flu vaccine — and the vaccine is the big concern of the moment, given the precedent of 1976.
That year, the U.S. government rushed to develop a swine flu vaccine and gave it to about 40 million people. Soon after the deaths of 25 people from paralysis and respiratory failure, the government strongly suspected the vaccine was the cause and withdrew it. The swine flu itself, on the other hand, killed only one person. The new strain of swine flu used in the new vaccine is slightly different, but concerns about Guillain-Barre remain the same.
"I would not have the swine flu jab" because of the risk, said a senior neurologist who asked that his name not be used.
Yet another worry about the vaccine is the use of a component oil called squalene.
Squalene also can set off autoimmunity and is associated with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a prominent American neurosurgeon.
Many British experts also are worried about squalene, going so far as to call the upcoming initial trial of the swine flu vaccine a “guinea-pig trial.”
The leaked letters beg doctors to be on the lookout for patients with Guillain-Barre symptoms, revealing deep doubts and fears in the UK about the safety of the new vaccine. The letter from the Association of British Neurologists, for instance, informed physicians that the vaccine caused a possible eight-fold increase in Guillain-Barre during the 1976 U.S. swine flu bout.
The Health Protection Agency letter reminded physicians that, in the 1976 bout in the United States, more people died from the vaccination than the flu. More than 500 cases of Guillain-Barre were diagnosed and resulted in the vaccine's being withdrawn after just 10 weeks.
Guillain-Barre By the Numbers: About 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine will be available this fall. In 1976, about one in 100,000 who got the swine flu vaccine developed Guillain-Barre.
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