A study in Finland has found that children vaccinated against
the H1N1 swine flu virus with Pandemrix were more likely to
develop the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The condition causes
excessive daytime sleepiness and sufferers can fall asleep
suddenly and unintentionally. The researchers found that between
2002 and 2009, before the swine flu pandemic struck, the rate of
narcolepsy in children under the age of 17 was 0.31 per 100,000.
In 2010 this was about 17 times higher at 5.3 per 100,000 while
the narcolepsy rate remained the same in adults. Markku Partinen
of the Helsinki Sleep Clinic and Hanna Nohynek of the National
Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland, also collected
vaccination and childhood narcolepsy data for children born
between January 1991 and December 2005. They found that in those
who were vaccinated the rate of narcolepsy was nine per 100,000
compared to 0.7 per 100,000 unvaccinated children, or 13 times
lower. The findings were published in the journal Public Library
of Sciences One. Pa