H1N1 vaccination Pandemrix. (DAPD, via AP)
An estimated 800 children in Europe have reportedly developed the sleep disorder narcolepsy after receiving a vaccination for H1N1, or swine flu. Some 30 million people in 47 countries have received the Pandemirx H1N1 vaccine, made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. Because it contains an adjuvant, or booster, and drug regulators have concerns about adjuvanted vaccines, the shot was not given in the U.S. GSK says 795 people in Europe have reported that after receiving the vaccine, they developed the sleep disorder, which can make normal life impossible. Researcher Emmanuel Mignot, one of the world’s leading experts on narcolepsy, said the evidence strongly backs a link, but he warned against letting the situation develop into the “next Wakefield,” the term used to describe the backlash after now-discredited British doctor Andrew Wakefield’s erroneous claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.