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Swine Flu Jab Link To Sleep Disorder Probed

Links in children between the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix and the sleep disorder narcolepsy are being investigated in the UK.

A causal link has already been confirmed in parts of Europe, including Sweden and Finland, and now a study is being conducted in the UK to examine any similar association here.

Six-year-old schoolboy Josh Hadfield, from Frome in Somerset, developed the rare sleep condition three weeks after being given the Pandemrix inoculation during the height of the pandemic last year.

His mother, Caroline Hadfield, had been advised to get the jab by her local GP - as Josh was in the vulnerable age bracket at the time.

She now suspects her son's illness was sparked by the controversial injection.

"Pre-vaccine he was energetic, fun-loving; he was always on the go," she said.

"Then he had the vaccine and all of a sudden he was sleeping 18 hours a day, he became depressed, did not want to go outside to play and he has permanently changed."

Josh is now given Ritalin and anti-depressants to help control his symptoms - but even so he has to sleep at school whilst his classmates go out to play.

In Finland investigators found 79 vaccinated children and adolescents had developed narcolepsy and those aged 14 to 19 who had the vaccine were 12 times more at risk than those who had not.

The government there is even offering compensation and support for affected families.

But so far tests in the UK have not established a conclusive link, and there are suggestions that a genetic predisposition or environmental factors could explain its occurrence in some parts of Scandinavia.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said: "It is possible that other geographical factors in Sweden and Finland, at the time of the pandemic, contributed in some way to the cases of narcolepsy seen after vaccination with Pandemrix.

"Further work is ongoing to explore this, including a study in the UK."

Josh is one of seven reported cases of narcolepsy in the UK - despite six million doses of the vaccine being administered.

Th vaccine manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, stressed: "It remains the case that a causal link with Pandemrix cannot be confirmed and that other unknown factors may have contributed.

"These questions need to be further clarified before definitive conclusions on an association of Pandemrix and narcolepsy can be drawn."

Josh's family have set up a Facebook support group called "Children With Narcolepsy" in the hope that more cases come forward.