Deaths In Sweden Linked To Swine Flu Vaccine

http://www.thelocal.se/22846/20091024/

Health investigators are under more pressure as two elderly women are reported to have died, days after receiving the swine flu vaccine. It brings the total number of deaths linked to the vaccine in Sweden to four.

The two latest deaths were reported to the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) on Friday.

A 74-year-old woman from Solleftea in northern Sweden died four days after receiving the swine flu vaccine.

The woman, who suffered from heart and lung disease, was classified as a high-risk patient.

“Naturally a report will be undertaken,” said Dr. Markus Kallionen in a press statement released by Västernorrland County Council.

“We must take this case seriously and investigate what has happened.”

A further case of a 90-year-old woman who also died after receiving the vaccine has been reported by newspaper Expressen.

Läkemedelsverket are currently investigating circumstances surrounding the deaths of two high-risk patients, a 50-year-old man with a serious heart condition and woman with an acute muscle disease.

“It’s important to says that they had complicated illnesses,“ Gunilla Sjölin Forslund from Läkemedelsverket told news agency TT.

“We still do not know if the deaths are connected to the vaccine.”

It will be interesting to follow this report and to find out if a causal link is established with the vaccine. All four of those people died quite soon after receiving the vaccine. All four also had serious underlying medical conditions. So, coincidence may come into play here. However, if a link is established with the vaccine, it raises the question of why the swine flu vaccine is being given in the first instance to vulnerable people, those who have an existing health issue.

One thing is certain. The vaccine manufacturers can't have it both ways: they can't claim that vulnerable people should have this vaccine and then claim that perhaps the vaccine itself is OK but those people had serious underlying health conditions if the vaccine is shown to have played a part in their deaths.