Erfurt, Germany (dpa) - An autopsy has been ordered on a man who
died five hours after receiving a vaccination against swine flu,
officials in the central German city of Erfurt said Monday.
Germany has bought 50 million doses of the vaccine to offer free
to as many of its 80 million people who want protection, but an old
and passionate controversy about whether vaccines are good or bad has
flared anew among the public and the media.
While pro-vaccine Germans have clamoured at medical centres for
their jabs, anti-vaccination groups claim that the vaccine contains
dangerous levels of mercury and is potentially lethal. The man's
death has become major news.
The Ministry of Social Affairs in the state of Thuringia said the
55-year-old man who died last Thursday had received his jab, then
went out to play bowls. On returning home he felt unwell and phoned
an emergency doctor, who was unable to save his life.
The man had no medical history of health problems. Pathologists
will look for evidence of any connection between his death and the
vaccination, and a report will take several days to complete.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says lengthy tests have shown
the vaccine is safe and has very few side-effects. Germany began
vaccinating last month. So far doctors have not been able to keep up
with the high demand.
Last week a 65-year-old German woman with cardiac illness died
just after being vaccinated, but an official doctor who examined the
body said the vaccine had not been the cause of death.
A spokesman in Thuringia said Germans should bear in mind that the
A(H1N1) influenza virus was far more dangerous to people's health and
lives than the vaccine against it, with 16 people in Germany having
died so far from the disease.
Copyright 2009 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH