Updates: 5% of students in Taiwan suffer from side-effects of H1N1 Shots.  The Taiwan authorities said that since most of the students came from ONE particular school, they say the school’s poor ventilation caused the side-effects.   (In Japan, more than 170 people suffered from side-effects after getting the H1n1 Swine Flu shots.)

CASUALTIES in China

Liu Dawei, a vaccination expert with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, China) said that 15 people in China have suffered severe side effects including anaphylactic shocks (sudden drop in blood pressure or difficulty in breathing) after taking the H1N1 Flu jab.

Time Magazine revealed that among the 12 million people vaccinated in China so far, 1,235 have complained of side effects, ranging from rashes, sore arms, headaches to anaphylactic shocks.

CDC experts considered an approximate 950 people to have “normal side-effects”.  Liu Dawei further added that cash would be compensated for those who have suffered from ABNORMAL reactions to the A/H1N1 Swine Flu vaccinations but did not elaborate what “abnormal reactions” meant.

“Deng Haihua, spokesman for the health ministry, said in a statement posted on the website late Friday that authorities had been notified of the deaths in the past two days, but he gave no personal details of the victims.” – VacTruth.com

DEATHS in China

2 adults have died.  One of them – a Hunan teacher – was playing basketball some 7 to 8 hours after the H1N1 Swine Flu shot.  His sudden death (cardiac arrest) caused a withdrawal of the vaccine batch from where he got his H1N1 flu shot.

Experts (China’s health authorities) have basically ruled out the possibility that the teacher’s sudden death was the result of immediate allergic reactions to the flu vaccines. They say the real cause of his death can only be ascertained after more lab test results return after 17th Nov 2009 (Friday).

The cause of death of the other adult is shrouded in mystery for the moment, as the autopsy would not be conducted until 17th Nov 2009.

Chinaview.cn reported that out of 66,000 !/H1N1 vaccinations in mainland China, 43 were fatal.  No further details were given.

Vivian Tan, a press officer of the World Health Organization’s Beijing office said,”No vaccine is risk-free, but the influenza vaccine is among the safest.”

“Like any vaccine, the WHO has warned the H1N1 vaccine may have negative side effects. Sinovac (China) plans to track and test patients for several years after vaccinations are administered to determine if there are any dangers.” -  quoted by CNN.com after they visited Sinovac’s vaccine-making operations.  (Till then, China citizens continue to be lab rats for vaccines.)

On 27th October ’09, more than half of Beijing surveyed via a Chinese poll on China Daily’s web portal Sohu.com, found that over 54% of respondents do not intend to take the H1N1 Flu shot because they feel the flu vaccines are unsafe.

Just a few hours from the time of publishing of this blog entry, WHO (from its Geneva headquarters), re-emphasized that the A/H1N1 Flu shots are as safe as the seasonal flu shots.  WHO said that a small percentage who died after vaccination, were actually not caused by the vaccine itself – and that 5 out of every 100 reported cases were serious.