An unpublished Canadian research study links seasonal flu vaccine shots with possible escalation of risks for swine flu or Influenza A (H1N1). The study has caused considerable international concern. Canadian health authorities are convening an expert panel to assess the data.
‘Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the findings appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn’t.’
WHO has asked other countries to verify the study ‘that shows people who received seasonal flu vaccines are more likely to contract swine flu.’ No results been repeated so far.
According to the WHO’s head of vaccine research, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, “None have been able to find anything like that. The plausibility seems sort of in question. It may be study bias; it may be something real.”
Health authorities in several Canadian provinces such as Saskatchewan and Quebec are considering suspending their flu vaccination programs, pointing towards a trend that ‘the findings are already having implications with public health officials across the country grappling with whether to delay, reduce or scrap altogether seasonal flu shot programs this year.’
Fortunately, ‘while few people appear to have actually read the study, the troubling findings have been a poorly kept secret and many in the public health community in Canada have heard about them.’
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