The MMR vaccine isn’t the only shot under fire: The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) is investigating GlaxoSmithKline’s “swine flu” (H1N1) vaccine Pandemrix to determine if it’s linked to a higher risk of developing narcolepsy after 27 cases of the sleep disorder were reported in Sweden and Finland. While the reported narcolepsy cases occurred soon after the patients received the Pandemrix shot, the EMEA emphasizes that the cause of narcolepsy is still unknown.
About 30 million Europeans have been inoculated with Pandemrix since it was approved in September 2009. “The occurrence of narcolepsy is rare — barely one in a million. There’s still no evidence yet that narcolepsy, which is a serious condition, is causally related to the H1N1 vaccine,” says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.
