Studies give insight into swine flu vaccine safety

Millions of people have been vaccinated for swine flu since the first outbreak in 2009. Pregnant women are among the high-risk groups strongly encouraged to receive the H1N1 vaccine. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows infants exposed to the vaccine before they were born did not have an increased risk of birth defects or pre-term birth. The authors in Denmark compared infants and mothers who had vaccine exposure to those who did not. Of the 50,000 infants and their mothers, 7,000 had vaccine exposure, about 13 percent. At the same time, personal stories of people who got sick after receiving H1N1 vaccine are plentiful on the Internet. Among the feared risks is Guillain-Barre syndrome, an often reversible but sometimes deadly, nervous system disorder. Another research paper printed in JAMA said the latest version of the vaccine is linked to a small increase in Guillain-Barre. Over a six-month...