Influenza vaccination increases risk of Guillain Barre syndrome.

2003 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Patients who receive influenza vaccination face a significantly increased risk of Guillain Barre syndrome, according to a report published in a recent issue of Clinical Immunology.

Mark R. Geier at Genetic Centers of America and collaborators at MedCon Inc. and IMMUNOX in the United States examined the records from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database to determine the incidence of Guillain Barre syndrome (GBS) following influenza vaccination in 1991 through 1999.

The VAERS database contained reports of 382 cases of GBS after influenza vaccination, with slightly more women than men affected. Median time of GBS occurrence after vaccination was 12 days.

Compared with a control group of subjects who received adult tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccine, those vaccinated against influenza were 4.3 times more likely to develop acute GBS and 8.5 times more likely to develop severe GBS.

"There were maximums in the incidence of GBS following influenza vaccine that occurred approximately every third year (1993, 1996, and 1998) and statistically significant variation in the incidence of GBS among different influenza manufacturers," reported Geier and his colleagues. "Influenza vaccines contained from a 125- to a 1250-fold increase in endotoxin concentrations in comparison to an adult Td vaccine control and endotoxin concentrations varied up to 10-fold ...