service dog for narcolepsy without cataplexy

In the spring of 2010, they noticed she was often tired, needing to sleep when she came home from school.īut it wasn’t until May, when she began collapsing at school, that it became clear something serious was happening.Īs well as the life-limiting bouts of daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy brings nightmares, hallucinations, sleep paralysis and episodes of cataplexy - when strong emotions trigger a sudden and dramatic loss of muscle strength. But her life started to change in early 2010, a few months after she had Pandemrix. LIFE CHANGEDĮmelie’s parents, Charles and Marie Olsson, say she was a top student who loved playing the piano, taking tennis lessons, creating art and having fun with friends. It’s not in anyone’s interests if there is a safety issue that needs to be addressed,” said GSK’s Begg. “We really do want to get to the bottom of this. Independent teams of scientists have published peer-reviewed studies from Sweden, Finland and Ireland showing the risk of developing narcolepsy after the 2009-2010 immunization campaign was between seven and 13 times higher for children who had Pandemrix than for their unvaccinated peers.

With the narcolepsy studies, there is no suggestion that the findings are the work of one rogue doctor.

“No-one wants to be the next Wakefield,” said Mignot, referring to the now discredited British doctor Andrew Wakefield who sparked a decades-long backlash against the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot with false claims of links to autism. Rare adverse reactions can swiftly develop into “vaccine scares” that spiral out of proportion and cast what one of Europe’s top flu experts calls a “long shadow” over public confidence in vaccines that control potential killers like measles and polio. Questions about how the narcolepsy cases are linked to Pandemrix, what the triggers and biological mechanisms might have been, and whether there might be a genetic susceptibility are currently the subject of deep scientific investigation.īut experts on all sides are wary. GSK says 795 people across Europe have reported developing narcolepsy since the vaccine’s use began in 2009. Because it contains an adjuvant, or booster, it was not used in the United States because drug regulators there are wary of adjuvanted vaccines. In total, the GSK shot was given to more than 30 million people in 47 countries during the 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. “There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in children in some countries - and probably in most countries,” says Mignot, a specialist in the sleep disorder at Stanford University in the United States. Others - including Emmanuel Mignot, one of the world’s leading experts on narcolepsy, who is being funded by GSK to investigate further - agree more research is needed but say the evidence is already clearly pointing in one direction. The chief medical officer at GSK’s vaccines division, Norman Begg, says his firm views the issue extremely seriously and is “absolutely committed to getting to the bottom of this”, but adds there is not yet enough data or evidence to suggest a causal link. Their fate, coping with an illness that all but destroys normal life, is developing into what the health official who coordinated Sweden’s vaccination campaign calls a “medical tragedy” that will demand rising scientific and medical attention.Įurope’s drugs regulator has ruled Pandemrix should no longer be used in people aged under 20. REUTERS/Ints KalninsĮmelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being immunized with the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in 2009.įinland, Norway, Ireland and France have seen spikes in narcolepsy cases, too, and people familiar with the results of a soon-to-be-published study in Britain have told Reuters it will show a similar pattern in children there. Emelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being immunised in 2009 with the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. Emelie Olsson falls asleep as he watches television in her apartment in Stockholm, January 17, 2013.

Service dog for narcolepsy without cataplexy