Tue, Oct 27, 2020 page2

• Vaccine not cause of coma: official

  RARE DISORDER: A 51-year-old, who has recovered from a coma, has been diagnosed with GBS, which causes the immune system to attack the body’s nerves

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  A top Centers for Disease Control (CDC) official yesterday said that “most studies” would suggest that an influenza vaccine is not the reason a Taiwanese man has been diagnosed with a neurological disorder and had briefly fallen into a coma.

  The man, who is 51 and lives in Taichung, received a flu vaccine produced by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi on Oct. 10, the city government’s Health Bureau said.

  The man felt fine afterward and even went hiking with his family, said Tang Tzao-ing (湯澡瑛), head of the bureau’s disease control division.

  However, on Tuesday last week, the man began to experience dizziness, nausea and muscle weakness, and went to the hospital, Tang said, adding that he began to have difficulty breathing a day later and was admitted to an intensive care unit.

  The man has since been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), a rare disorder with no known cause in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s nerves.

  He also fell into a coma from which he has since recovered, but is still being treated in the intensive care unit, Tang said.

  The city government would help the man and his family apply to the CDC’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for compensation, where a panel of experts would determine whether he should receive payment, Tang said.

  CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that “most studies” would suggest that GBS is not linked to flu vaccines.

  However, a small number of studies have shown “an extremely small connection” between the disorder and flu vaccines or other types of infection, he said.

  Asked about reports that 48 people in South Korea have died after receiving the flu vaccine, resulting in Singapore halting the administration of flu vaccines produced by South Korean company SK Bioscience and Sanofi, Chuang said that South Korean health officials have determined that the deaths are not directly related to the vaccine, and have not yet halted their vaccination program.

  The CDC is still seeking information from officials in Singapore, he said.

  Chuang did not say whether Taiwan would follow Singapore’s lead and halt the use of any brand of flu vaccine.

  Sanofi released a statement saying that the company’s vaccines imported by Taiwan have been subjected to strict quality checks and were different from the batch being used in South Korea.

  As of Friday, of the 4 million people who have received a flu vaccine in Taiwan this year, 12 have reported serious side affects and only one of those received the Sanofi-made vaccine, the company said, adding it has not been determined whether the patient’s side effects were linked to the vaccine.
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