Over a dozen cases of narcolepsy have been linked to the swine flu jab that was administered in Ireland.
Pandermrix, the swine flu jab, has found to increase the risk of someone developing the severe sleep disorder. The Irish Medicines Board says that it has received 13 reports of Irish patients who received the jab for the killer flu, developing a chronic nervous system disorder after they received the jab.
The IMB has stressed that a definite link between the two has not yet been established, but strong studies from Sweden show a link between the drug and the disease is evident.
Narcolepsy is a severe sleep condition, which causes extreme drowsiness every three or four hours and is also associated with hallucinations, sleep paralysis and muscle weakness.
Those who were vaccinated with Pandermrix had a more than six-fold increase in the risk for narcolepsy according to research from Sweden’s Medical Products Agency.
In those who were vaccinated, 4.2 cases per 100,000 showed narcolepsy symptoms compared with only 0.64 cases per 100,000 in unvaccinated people.
More investigations in the link between the drug and disease will be carried out by the European Medicines Agency. It has confirmed that some Irish cases will be included in the study with results expected sometime next month.
According to reports, “the incidence was substantially higher within three months of the vaccination”.
If you or anyone you know has the symptoms of narcolepsy then contact your GP.
