Va. teen suffers rare illness after
swine flu shot
Boy diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, but CDC says no clear
link
Jordan McFarland, 14, was hospitalized for five days after coming down with
Guillain-Barre syndrome hours after receiving a vaccination for H1N1.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33845867/ns/health-cold_and_flu/
By JoNel Aleccia
Health writer
msnbc.com
updated less than 1 minute ago
• E-mail
A 14-year-old Virginia boy is weak and struggling to walk after coming down with
a reported case of Guillain-Barre syndrome within hours after receiving the H1N1
vaccine for swine flu.
Jordan McFarland, a high school athlete from Alexandria, Va., left Inova Fairfax
Hospital for Children Tuesday night in a wheelchair nearly a week after
developing severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs following a
swine flu shot. He will likely need the assistance of a walker for four to six
weeks, plus extensive physical therapy.
“The
doctor said I’ll recover fully, but it’s going to take some time,” the
teenager said.
Jordan is among the first people in the nation to
report
developing the potentially life-threatening muscle disorder after receiving the
H1N1 vaccine this fall. His alarming reaction was submitted via
msnbc.com's reader reporting tool, First Person, by his stepmother, Arlene
Connin.
Increased cases of GBS were found in patients who received a 1976 swine flu
vaccine, but government health officials say they've seen no rise in the
condition associated with the current outbreak.
So far, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have received
five
reports of GBS in people who received the H1N1 vaccine since Oct. 6, not
including Jordan’s case, said Dr. Claudia J. Vellozzi, deputy director for
immunization safety.
Out of about 40 million doses of H1N1 vaccine available to date, that’s a far
lower rate of GBS than the 1 case that develops in every 1 million people who
receive the regular flu vaccine.
"It's much less than we'd expect," she said, adding that many cases go
unreported.
In 1976, about 1 additional case of GBS developed in every 100,000 people who
were vaccinated against the swine flu, according to the CDC.
Jordan's parents said doctors diagnosed the teen with GBS, a rare muscle
disorder that develops when a person’s own immune system attacks the nerves,
causing muscle weakness, difficulty walking and sometimes paralysis and death.
Hospital officials didn't dispute that the boy had GBS, but refused to comment
on the boy's condition or treatment, even after his family granted permission.
“They don’t want to create a fear or panic in the community,” said Jordan's
stepmother, Connin.
Connin and Jordan’s father, Calvin McFarland, both 38, believe the shot sparked
the illness that came on 18 hours after the boy’s vaccination.
No clear link
But Vellozzi said there’s no clear link between the new vaccine and the
disease.
“We know that GBS and other illnesses occur routinely in the U.S.,” Vellozzi
said, noting that 80 to 120 cases are diagnosed each week in the general
population.
“There are events that follow vaccination. That’s what they are, they happened
to follow vaccination.
Swine flu vaccine: Your stories
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GBS is among the most severe adverse events being tracked with updated systems
developed by the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the American
Association of Neurology in order to monitor the rollout of the H1N1 flu
vaccine.
So far, CDC officials have received about 1,700 reports of adverse events linked
to the new shot, Vellozzi said. Of those, only about 4 percent, or 68, were
coded as serious. That’s on par with reports regarding seasonal vaccine.
While any harmful side effect can be devastating for an individual, when it
comes to larger public health issues, the H1N1 virus is considerably riskier
than the vaccine, experts say.
“The H1N1 illness is making lots of children very ill," Vellozzi said. "There’s
lots of illness and lots of death."
So far, more than 4,000 people have died from H1N1 infection in the U.S.,
according to latest estimates by the CDC.
Since the start of the H1N1 vaccine campaign, the CDC has repeatedly warned that
certain conditions, such as miscarriage, heart attack and even GBS occur
regardless of immunization, and officials have urged the public not to blame the
vaccine for the illnesses, but to report promptly any suspected side effects.
Officials at Inova Fairfax had not reported Jordan's case to the CDC as of early
today, and did not respond to queries about whether they would report the
adverse event.
Vaccine critic Barbara Lowe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine
Information Center in Vienna, Va., said assuming all potential side effects
are coincidence is a mistake. Such an attitude is likely to prevent doctors and
other health workers from reporting adverse events in a timely manner, obscuring
a true picture of any problems.
Fisher said only between 1 percent and 10 percent of adverse events are reported
to the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which was set up to
track problems with vaccines. A 1986 law requires reporting of certain adverse
events to VAERS, but there are no sanctions for not reporting, Fisher noted. CDC
officials said general reporting to VAERS is voluntary.
Potential side effects of H1N1 vaccine
Like the seasonal flu shot, the H1N1 vaccine may cause minor side effects:
Soreness, redness or swelling where the shot was given
Low-grade fever
Aches
Nausea
The nasal-spray version of the vaccine contains weakened virus, and side
effects may include:
Runny nose
Wheezing
Headache
Vomiting
Muscle aches
Fever
Sore throat or cough
On rare occasions, flu vaccination can cause serious problems, such as severe
allergic reactions that include difficulty breathing, hoarseness, wheezing,
swelling around the eyes or lips, weakness or a fast heart beat.
If any unusual condition occurs after vaccination, you should seek immediate
medical attention, tell your doctor what happened, the date and time it happened
and when the vaccine was given. Ask your doctor, nurse or health department to
report the reaction by filing a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
form. Or you can file this report yourself online at
www.vaers.hhs.gov.
Source: CDC
Fisher said she suspects that many more cases of GBS have occurred in the wake
of the H1N1 vaccines.
"We basically have people blowing it off," she said. "We need to make sure
people are reporting."
Eager for protection
Like many parents across the country, Arlene Connin said she was eager to
protect Jordan and his brother, Lleyton, 7, against the flu. When she took the
boys to the local health department for seasonal flu shots on Nov. 5, the
provider said H1N1 vaccine was available, too.
There was “not even a thought,” that either boy would have a reaction, Connin
said. Within hours, however, Jordan developed severe headaches, chills and back
spasms. The family rushed him to the closest hospital, Dewitt Army Community
Hospital, where doctors conducted neurological exams, a CT scan and an EKG test.
The small hospital didn’t have the facilities to diagnose or treat Jordan’s
illness, so he was transferred by ambulance on Nov. 6 to Inova Fairfax Hospital
in Falls Church, Va., a spokesman said. Doctors there quickly gave Jordan
intravenous immunoglobulin, a standard treatment for GBS, Connin said.
“GBS, that’s the diagnosis they gave us and that’s how they were treating him,”
Connin said.
A hospital spokesman, Tony Raker, declined further comment on Jordan's case.
When an msnbc.com photographer asked to view Jordan's chart, even with his
father's permission, hospital officials refused.
Doctors are reluctant to discuss GBS in connection with vaccines, Connin said.
Anti-vaccine groups frequently cite the disorder as evidence of vaccine dangers,
which public health officials fear will discourage people from getting
life-saving protection, especially in the case of H1N1.
Jordan’s experience has made his parents think hard about immunization, even
though they’ve always insisted on annual flu shots. Under CDC guidelines for
children 9 and younger, Lleyton should receive another booster shot of H1N1
vaccine to protect him fully against the virus.
“I have mixed emotions on that one,” Calvin McFarland, the boys’ father, said.
“We’re not sure what we’re going to do about that.”
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