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There are no longer scientific grounds for doubting
the association between elevated risk for narcolepsy
and the Pandemrix vaccine used against H1N1
influenza (swine flu).
“At first our findings were taken to be flawed, but
now they have been replicated in the other Nordic
countries, the UK and France,” says Professor Markku
Partinen. “No one denies the association any longer.”
Partinen is the executive director of the Helsinki
Sleep Clinic and chair of the NARPANord Consortium.
He has spent 30 years studying narcolepsy, an
autoimmune disorder that causes people to suddenly
fall asleep, rapidly enter REM sleep and often
suffer from a loss of muscle tone.
Partinen explains that joint Nordic studies were
also open to the possibility of the Pandemrix
vaccine causing an all new illness similar to
narcolepsy. No indications of this were found,
however.
“A comparative study involving narcoleptic children
in Italy, where Pandemrix was not used, demonstrated
a link between the vaccine and the condition,”
Partinen points out. The onset of vaccine-triggered
narcolepsy may be fiercer than usual. According to
Partinen, those affected were mostly children,
because narcolepsy usually develops in childhood.
Studies have found no links between narcolepsy and
other swine flu vaccines.
Suspicions of an association between the swine flu
vaccine and narcolepsy first emerged in Finland and
Sweden. The explanation may be a statistical one:
since Pandemrix was widely used in the Nordic
countries, the side effects were also more numerous.
“Who knows, the dark Nordic winters and other
environmental factors may also play a part in this,”
says Partinen. “We need further studies.”
People diagnosed with narcolepsy were found to have
something in common: a specific HLA gene variant
called DQB1*0602. “Interestingly, the same gene
variant also appears to be related to other
autoimmune disorders, such as a higher risk for
developing multiple sclerosis,” Partanen states. “On
the other hand, it protects against type 1
diabetes.”
For more information
University of Helsinki
(MDN)
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