Some of you may have seen the Prime Time programme featuring interviews regarding the possibility of sleeping problems and one of the vaccinations given out during the H1N1 Pandemic. There was also a family interviewed on Radio 1 and newspaper article
There has been a number of cases of narcolepsy (Brief description – sleeping too much and suddenly falling asleep) recently but as of yet a possible link to Pandemix (a flu vaccine) is not proven or established. It may be a coincidence and it may be that now the diagnosis of this condition has much improved and more cases are being picked up. However, GPs and Health Professionals have been alerted to consider patients with symptoms for more diagnosis procedure to check for narcolepsy.
If parents show concern they can check with their GP but so far the numbers of cases are not significant. But if a person has problems with sleeping suddenly when they shouldn’t and chronic fatigue they can get it checked by their family doctor.
Below are links which the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) recommend if you want further information
HSE press statement
http://www.hse.ie/eng/
All GPs in the country should have received a letter about the investigation and were asked to refer suspect cases to paediatric hospital for investigation- this was sent out by HSE
There is also a support group that has a website, supported by the Mater hospital
See below link to IMB and update link to European medicines agency
