Americans who received the H1NI flu vaccine, also known as the
swine flu vaccine, in 2009 and 2010 had a very small but real
increase in their risk for developing a rare neurological
disorder, a new study finds. Among people who were vaccinated,
cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome were about twice as common
during the first six weeks after receiving the vaccination than
they were after that. However, because a large number of people
received the shot, and because Guillain-Barré syndrome would be
expected to occur in some individuals regardless of whether or
not they had been vaccinated, the actual increase in risk was
extremely small: about 1.5 extra cases of the condition for
every 1 million people vaccinated, the researchers said. Given
that the swine flu vaccine is thought to have prevented 700,000
to 1.5 million cases of flu, and 4,000 to 10,000 hospital
admissions during the years in which it was given, the benefits
of the vaccine greatly outweighed the risks, the researchers
said. Guillain-Barré syndrome o