Guillain-Barre Syndrome after Influenza Vaccination - More Lessons from 1976

by: SusanC

Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 19:45:18 PM EDT

Swine Flu 1976 - Old Vaccines, New Lessons

by: SusanC

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 20:15:08 PM EDT

Anti-Ganglioside Antibody Induction by Swine (A/NJ/1976/H1N1) and Other Influenza Vaccines: Insights into Vaccine-Associated Guillain-Barré Syndrome

The US army suffered heavy losses during the 1918 pandemic - more men died from flu than from fighting in the War.  When an outbreak of swine flu occurred in 1976 among army recruits in a camp, the US government ordered millions of doses of vaccines against the virus, in anticipation of another pandemic.  But a pandemic didn't happen.  Instead, the massive vaccination campaign resulted in reports of Guillaine-Barre syndrome (or GBS) in some vaccine recipients, eventually causing the vaccination program to be halted.  

Now, decades later, researchers sought to discover how this happened. A paper published last year (link) gives some unexpected and disturbing findings.