Four people die after receiving flu vaccinations in 2 separate clinics By Ron Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Four people have died after receiving flu vaccinations, it was announced Sunday. The Leumi health maintenance organization informed the Health Ministry of three victims among its subscribers, and the Meuhedet HMO announced that one of its subscribers had also died.
In response, the Health Ministry has instructed health facilities to immediately stop providing the vaccinations.
Army Radio reported that the first three victims were all vaccinated last week at the same branch in Kiryat Gat. The injections were all performed from the same vaccine pool.
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Three of the victims, ages 75, 70 and 52, had been vaccinated in previous years against the flu, and none showed abnormal reactions.
An initial investigation conducted by the Health Ministry discovered that all four had suffered from various illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems.
The first three people died of cardiac arrest - one of them a day after receiving the vaccination, another three days after and the last six days after. The fourth victim, a 67-year-old male from Petah Tikva, died several hours after receiving the immunization.
Ashkelon District physicians are investigating the deaths. The Health Ministry has contacted the manufacturer of the vaccine, Aventis Pasteur of France, whose products are sold worldwide, and requested that it perform extensive examinations of its laboratories.
It is still unclear whether there is a connection between the vaccinations and the fatalities, or the nature of such a connection if it exists.
It is also unclear whether there were complications in the administration of the vaccine, whether related to the method of injection or the vaccine itself.
Wonder, from however large a population involved, how many who “suffered from chronic illnesses” would die in any 1 to 5 day period normally anyway?
…”The shots were being given last week only to patients at high risk from heart, lung or respiratory disease, high blood pressure, cancer or AIDS.”… article
I hope they figure it out.
I’ll bet all four of them also drank a glass of water in the hours before they died. Did that kill them? no. Is it possible it could have been the shot-almost anythings possible. And there is allways a risk. But if a 75 year old person with high blood pressure and heart problems dies of a coronary arrest-I’d say the flu shot was just a coincidence.
Contamination could be the culprit. It isn’t like the company hasn’t been cited for it numerous times.
Three of the four people who died received their shot from the same clinic. Even with high blood pressure and age, this does not look like a coincidence to me. French experts are on their way to check it out. In the meantime, the local Health Authorities have given permission to resume flu shots. Thanks but no thanks for me, until this is investigated thoroughly.
FYI:
my wife and 2 toddler sons and i all got kaiser’s vax on sunday. we were all partying into the night…. i didnt even have my occasional—5 times in 15 years of flu shots—vasovagal syncope like last year. truly mystifying—i only pass out for flu shots not the many other shots ive had, blood drawn, etc…
havent had the flu in 15 years…
Any vaccine can get a bad batch. My Brittany Spanial died of a bad Rabies vaccine. Numerous dogs did.
I got mine last week…haven’t died yet :/
Israel
Flu Vaccines To Continue In Israel After Health Ministry Gives Green Light
After deciding that the four deaths were not linked to flu shots, the Health Ministry in Israel has decided to resume vaccinations. Health Minister, Yaacov Ben-Yizri, announced that vaccinations will resume this evening.
Yaacov Ben-Yizri said the Ministry had held consultations with all the expert teams nationwide, and they completely ruled out any association between the four deaths and the flu shots.