Dawn Crim
Vactruth
October 2, 2009
Most health experts will agree that vaccine reactions can occur. It is estimated that roughly 1 in every million people will react to their vaccine. Even then, health officials maintain that it is usually a simple case of inflammation at the injection site and/or a slight fever. On a rare occasion, anaphylactic shock may occur due to the patient reacting to a substance that they are allergic to. However, the FDA recently approved four H1N1 vaccines that not only contain very questionable ingredients, but some of those ingredients have even been proven to cause cancer and death.
The FDA has awarded H1N1 contracts to the following companies: MedImmune, LLC (1), CSL Limited (2), Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited (3), and Sanofi Pasteur (4). Their package inserts became public knowledge in recent weeks.
All four vaccines list hypersensitivity to eggs as a contraindication (1) (2) (3) (4). This means that it is not advisable to administer any one of these products to a person suffering from a severe egg allergy or egg protein allergy. This contraindication may affect as many as 15 million people (based on a population of 300 million). (5). While parents are instructed not to feed their infant eggs until 1 year of age, these same infants will be exposed to eggs by way of their H1N1 vaccine and/or seasonal flu vaccine beginning at 6 months of age.CSL’s vaccine (2) also lists hypersensitivity to chicken protein as a contraindication. “While most people who are sensitive to eggs can eat chicken, there is one protein that is present in both eggs and poultry — alpha-livetin, or chicken serum albumin — that can cause allergies to both foods.” (6)It is unknown at this time how many people are allergic to the aforementioned proteins. Going into anaphylactic shock is a very real possibly if one were to receive an ingredient that he/she is allergic to.
Neomycin and polymyxin are listed as contraindications for CSL’s (2) and Novartis’ (3) vaccines.“Neomycin may cause damage to the kidneys and/or nerves. Kidney function and drug levels in the blood may be monitored with blood tests during treatment. Tell your doctor if you experience decreased urination, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, feeling of fullness in the ears, dizziness, numbness, skin tingling, muscle twitching, or seizures which may be signs of kidney or nerve damage.” (7) According to Teva Pharmaceuticals, the effects of neomycin may not be evident until long after the medication has been discontinued. Just exactly how long is unclear at this time. (8)Polymyxin has its own set of possible adverse reactions. “Neurotoxic reactions may be manifested by irritability, weakness, drowsiness, ataxia, perioral paresthesia, numbness of the extremities, and blurring of vision. These are usually associated with high serum levels found in patients with impaired renal function and/or nephrotoxicity.” (9)
Gentamicin (10) is listed as a contraindication for MedImmune’s vaccine (1). It too, has its own list of possible side effects, which may include nephrotoxicity and/or neurotoxicity.
