By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
In the first quarter of this year nearly 300 children across Australia fell ill with fevers, vomiting and convulsions following administration of the seasonal flu vaccine.
There was also a reported death of a two year old after vaccination. Following this further vaccinations were suspended in under-fives and a large scale investigation was started. Health Minister Kim Hames last month had announced a review that would examine issue and report to relevant authorities. An interim report from the review will be completed in the next few days but will not be made public.
The preliminary results of the investigation are out. It shows that this year the number of kids who developed fever, vomiting and other side effects from flu shots was nine times higher than previous years.
The authority on monitoring such matters Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) now reports that nine children among every 1,000 vaccinated with flu shots this year developed the side effects. The results of the report are worrying the health authorities in a big way said Australian Medical Association (AMA), Andrew Pesce. “There's no way that we would want to see this happen again and I'm sure that there will be a lot of work continuing to try to find what the explanation is for this higher-than-expected reaction,” Dr Pesce said.
At present further tests are being conducted by the United States' Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia since the actual cause for the side effects is still not clear.