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Swine flu vaccine recipeints' deaths in China probably unrelated to immunizations
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AP
Nov. 14--Provincial health officials in Hunan, China, reported on Friday that two people who had recently received Chinese-made H1N1 influenza vaccine died between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13. One death, authorities believe, had no relation to the vaccination. The other death is still under investigation as a possible allergic reaction to a vaccine component.
The Associated Press is reporting that the death already ruled a coincidence occurred when a middle-aged man suffered a heart attack and collapsed while playing basketball.
Some 13 million Chinese have been vaccinated against swine flu since September. The two deaths are the only known fatalities with even a suspected relation to the vaccination. Among the hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents who have received an H1N1 vaccination, no vaccine-related deaths or serious allergies have occurred. News did come this past week that a 14-year-old boy in Alexandria, Va., developed Guillain-Barre syndrome within weeks of getting swine flu shot, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigator could not establish a link between the disease and the vaccine.
The teen should make a full recovery. Between 800,000 and 1 million Virginians have been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus as of Nov. 14.
At the same time, more than 4,000 Americans have died after suffering complications from swine flu. Another 22 million-plus people in the United States have been sickened by the H1N1 strain of the influenza virus.
An analysis of worldwide injury and death rates published in the Oct. 31 issue of The Lancet indicates that practically all serious health problems for people who get flu shots--from miscarriages to strokes--will be coincidences rather than vaccine side effects. What people who take either a seasonal or swine flu vaccine shot can expect is mild soreness in their arm and, for a few people, a low, short-lived fever.
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