Are There Dangerous Swine Flu Vaccine Side Effects?

In 2009 scientists quickly developed and made available a swine flu vaccine to combat the H1N1 pandemic that emerged that year. Since then, a separate swine flu vaccination has not been available, but protection against the swine flu has been included in the seasonal flu shots produced each now. If swine flu continues to be a common flu strain, it will probably be included in future years. Like all vaccines, the season flu vaccine has some side effects. Most of the side effects are mild and are more annoying than dangerous. Common side effects of the flu vaccine include:

• A sore arm around where the shot was received.
• A headache.
• A mild fever.

Now, to clarify something, it is often said that getting a fever after having the flu vaccine means the vaccine has given a person the flu. The flu actually doesn't cause a fever. Fever is a part of the way the human body fights disease. Some bacteria and viruses are very sensitive to temperature change. By raising the body's temperature, the immune system weakens these diseases, making it easier to defeat them. So getting a fever after the flu vaccine doesn't mean a person has the flu. It means that the person's body is preparing to fight off disease, just the way it is supposed to after getting the vaccine. The one side effect of the flu vaccine that can be dangerous is Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). GBS affects approximately 1 out of 1,000,000 people who get vaccinated for the flu. It causes muscle weakness and temporary paralysis and in rare cases can be life threatening. Most people who get GBS will recover fully. The number of people who die from the flu each year has varied from 3,000 to 49,000 between 1976 and 2007. It is difficult to know ahead of time if a year will be a bad year for the flu. However with over 300 million people in the US it is safe to say that even in a good year, for every one person who gets GBS from the flu vaccine, 10 people will die from the flu.