Finland: Minister Calls for Thorough Examination of Possible Link Between H1N1 and Narcolepsy

Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko says it is essential to thoroughly examine suspicions that increased outbreaks of child narcolepsy might be linked to the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/08/minister_calls_for_thorough_examination_of...


Several Times Normal Rate of Cases

About a dozen Finnish children fell ill with narcolepsy during or after last winter's swine flu epidemic, far more than the average rate. The THL is trying to determine whether the cases may have been related to the H1N1 vaccine or to the flu itself.

The cases were diagnosed during the spring and early summer. Dr Markku Partinen, a docent in neurology at the University of Helsinki and former president of the World Association of Sleep Medicine, notes that the cases appear to have a chronological link to the H1N1 epidemic.

Doctors began to wonder when an unusually large number of cases of narcolepsy began to appear last spring. Tweet