Taiwan - Former CDC chief offers to conduct autopsies in support of swine flu shots

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="92%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=en_content_title width="66%" colSpan=2>Former CDC chief offers to conduct autopsies in support of swine flu shots


</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>Su said the campaign had already succeeded in reaching 4 million people </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=5></TD></TR><TR><TD class=author width="59%">Taiwan News, Staff Writer

2009-12-19 12:00 AM
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</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2 height=15></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Former Centers for Disease Control Director Su Ih-jen said yesterday he was willing to perform autopsies to support the government's case that vaccines against the A(H1N1) virus were safe.

His offer followed fears that the vaccines had caused several deaths and were especially dangerous to pregnant women and their unborn children.
Su, who served at the CDC during the previous Democratic Progressive Party and gained prominence for his work against SARS, said the immunization campaign had already succeeded in reaching 4 million people but had won no accolades.

He was willing to take action in support of the vaccination policy because too much attention had been paid to a limited number of cases showing problems, he said. Su wrote a letter to Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang to perform autopsies in questionable cases.

The former CDC chief said he was worried that the few problem cases would harm the will of a majority of people to be immunized against the flu virus.

The questionable cases included several pregnant women who had lost their babies. The DOH said yesterday that those cases were unrelated to the flu vaccines.

Two women had stillborn babies, two involved miscarriages, and one woman reportedly complained about receiving a flu shot before being informed she was pregnant.

DOH Vice Minister Chang Shan-chwen told a news conference yesterday that one baby was stillborn because of an abnormal placenta and that one miscarriage was the result of the fetus being caught up in the umbilical chord.

Neither case had anything to do with the A(H1N1) vaccine, Chang said, emphasizing that more than 13,000 pregnant women had already been immunized.

The ratio of miscarriages was lower for vaccinated women than for those who did not receive any shots, while the ratio of stillborn babies was the same for both groups, he said. The DOH also rejected reported links between the vaccine and the death of an elderly man and the health problems of an infant and a young woman. The 82-year-old man probably died of a heart attack, Chang said. A senior high school student became numb on the left side of her body and a 19-month-old child had a drooping right eyelid in two cases which were not the result of flu shots, he said.


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http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1136426&lang=eng_news&cate_img=316.jpg&cate_rss=news_Health

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Re: Taiwan - Former CDC chief offers to conduct autopsies in support of swine flu shots

Updated Saturday, December 19, 2009 12:06 am TWN, CNA

Pregnant women's issues not due to H1N1 vaccine

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Department of Health (DOH) said recent cases of pregnant women losing their babies after being immunized against the influenza (H1N1) virus were unrelated to getting the vaccine, and it urged
pregnant women not to fear getting a flu shot.

Liu Ting-ping, who is in charge of the immunization program at the DOH's Centers for Disease Control, said hospitals have notified her agency of five complaints from pregnant women after receiving an H1N1 flu shot.

Two cases involved stillborn babies, two involved miscarriages, and one woman was simply unhappy at getting an H1N1 shot before learning she was pregnant.

DOH Deputy Minister Chang Shan-chwen said that in two of the cases reported in the media, an older woman's baby was stillborn because of an abnormal placeta, and one of the miscarriages was caused by the umbilical chord encircling the fetus.

After studying the two cases, a group of physicians who serve as advisers to the DOH found that neither incident was caused by the new vaccine, Chang said, and he insisted that based on results to date, the immunization program is safe for pregnant women.

?More than 13,000 pregnant women have been immunized. The ratio of miscarriages is lower than for pregnant women who have not taken the shots, and the ratio of stillborn babies is the same for the two groups,? he said. The DOH will continue to monitor the effect of H1N1 vaccines on pregnant women and their babies, he added.

The CDC's Liu said her agency has received 22 applications for redress from people who suffered problems after receiving H1N1 shots. Among them, one was filed by one of five pregnant women reported to the CDC, but her case is still being reviewed.

Of the other 21 applications, three have been screened by a team of medical experts, which found that their conditions had ?nothing to do with the new vaccines,? according to the DOH's Chang.

The three cases involved an 82-year-old man who died because of acute cerebrovascular disease or a heart attack; a 19-month-old infant whose right eyelid droop was caused by a disease in the immune system; and a senior high school student who became numb on the left side of her body after taking the shot but whose neural functions were found to be normal.

Liu noted that the family members who were not satisfied by the panel's judgment could take legal action to have a forensic examination to help determine the exact cause of death.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2009/12/19/237124/Pregnant-womens.htm