Flu vaccine causes febrile seizures in toddlers

Monday, February 07, 2011 by: Marianne Leigh
Tags: flu vaccine, seizures, health news

(NewsTarget) Every year around the first of October we find ourselves plunged into another flu season. Health organizations ramp up communications; plastic signs appear outside of neighborhood pharmacies; and more than half of the US population typically decides to be vaccinated. In December of 2010, however, the flu vaccine formulated specifically for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old was found to be causing a higher than normal incidence of febrile seizures.

Various health websites characterize a febrile seizure as a 'convulsion' or a 'loss of consciousness' that accompanies a fever. In general, the eyes roll back and the individual becomes rigid, twitches and shakes; they do not respond or seem to hear and do not remember the episode.

Despite valiant efforts by the medical establishment to downplay incidences of febrile seizure, calling them 'harmless', 'common' or even 'normal' and assuring us that there is no permanent neurological damage (phew!), anyone who has ever witnessed one, particularly in a young child, will tell you that it's terrifying.

The makers of this year's flu vaccine for children, Sanofi-Aventis, have admitted to a higher than normal incidence of febrile seizures after administration of their vaccine but still insist that no causal link has been made. The uptick in seizures was detected by an early-warning system of the CDC and the FDA, called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), that is designed to track vaccine safety.

While no final conclusions have been made public yet, it is safe to say that the bias of health authorities leans heavily towards vaccination, seeking to legitimize the wide use of vaccines and protect the reputations of companies that make them. So likely, we will never know the un-spun truth.

For the moment we can only add the possibility of a febrile seizure to a growing list of concerns and possible side effects of vaccination. And when you do, you may just find yourself with the needed argument to forgo one more elective, ineffective vaccine in favor of a bit more sunshine and good 'ole vitamin D.

(see -- https://www.naturalnews.com/024982_Vitamin_D_... -- for further reading, )

Sources for this story include:

- http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febrile_s...
- http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Sa...
- http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2011/0...

About the author

Marianne Leigh is a writer deeply concerned with environmental and natural health issues.
She is currently creating a local food blog for her community as a means of provoking discussions about food, natural health and local sustainable agriculture.
You may contact her for further details on this project.
[email protected]