Warning over vaccine-related events during pandemic preparations
A cautionary tale from the Centres for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, on mass vaccination could lead governments and national media to temper their enthusiasm for vaccination as the major way that any influenza pandemic is ultimately controlled.
John Iskander, project officer for CDC’s vaccine adverse events
reporting system, was involved in the 1976 US swine flu vaccine programme
that prepared for “a pandemic that wasn’t” and instead — as
an unintended consequence — produced a vaccine-related increase
in Guillain-Barré syndrome. Dr Iskander told the Bird
Flu Summit
held in Washington, DC, earlier this week that the 1976 increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome
(GBS) was a “classic rare but extremely serious event”. The
vaccines were associated with a GBS increase of one case per 100,000
vaccinated.
The disease requires admission to hospital, intensive care and ventilator
use, all resources that would be in short supply during an influenza
pandemic, Dr Iskander noted.
Current studies are looking at the 1976 vaccines to see if they can determine
what caused the increase in GBS. He added that the incidence of GBS has
been declining and has not been associated with other vaccines.
Dr Iskander also commented that existing vaccine tracking programmes
may have to be enhanced during an influenza pandemic to include more
data to pick up possible adverse events more effectively. One option
being considered is bar-coding vaccines and linking them to patient records. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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