Vaccines, peak sales and panic. Doctors besieged by patients
Coletto's participation in the anti-flu campaign drops to 58%: "Ready to block the doses of the suspect brand". "Madness - observes the Venetian president, Giuseppe Cicciù - so we would end up with hundreds of dead, not just thirteen".
01 December 2014 – VENETO COURIER VENETO / CHRONICLE
VENICE It is also a vaccine alarm in Veneto. Since Thursday, the deaths connected to the anti-flu serum "Fluad" by Novartis have continued to increase in the rest of Italy: there are already 13 and what's more, the latest victim, from Cuneo, took another formulation, Agrippal, produced by same company.
The same one that in 2012 had seen 500,000 doses blocked by the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), some of which had caused annoying side effects, fortunately not serious, for several Venetians. This time none of the 475,000 packs included in the two withdrawn lots has reached our region, which in fact has no records of deaths or suspected cases, but people put two and two together and are afraid all the same.
You read it in the further drop in vaccinations in the Local Health Authorities (for which the "Fluad" is intended) and in the collapse of sales of other serums in pharmacies, although they have nothing to do with the one under investigation in Siena, Prato and Syracuse. «Purchases of flu vaccines have dropped by 50% - confirms Franco Gariboldi Muschietti, president of Farmacieunite - the Fluad case has dealt the final blow to the physiological decline observed in recent years. It is linked to the decision not to protect themselves adopted by a growing number of Venetians and to the choice of many others to resort to homeopathic treatments ». «Only in the province of Verona does an average drop in sales of 27% emerge, with peaks of 70% – adds Marco Bacchini, president of Federfarma from Verona -. The withdrawal of Fluad creates an alarmism that adds up to the need for economic savings and a warm autumn capable of distracting patients from immunising themselves. A dangerous choice: the virus, finding no subjects/barriers, will spread massively ».
Shared fear by Dr. Francesca Russo, head of Prevention in the Region: «Every year many fragile people, i.e. the elderly and subjects affected by chronic or respiratory, metabolic, cardiovascular and oncological diseases die or are at great risk due to complications of the flu. Alarmism is dangerous and frustrates years of work carried out by the Ministry of Health, Regions and doctors to protect the population, especially the weakest. The problem is that there is no exact perception of the risk and so adherence to the vaccination campaign has dropped to 58%, against the 65% of the past, also because the virus has not changed in recent years and therefore relies on the ability to recognize it of the immune system. Declining confidence in flu shots and vaccines in general is a very serious problem that worries us. To the Venetians I say: the causal link between taking Fluad and the 13 deaths has not yet been demonstrated».
The Ministry of Health and the Regions are therefore preparing a counter-campaign, which illustrates the risks associated with the choice not to take the anti-flu serum. Veneto has bought 900,000 doses, including "Fluad", equipped with an adjuvant, that is, more powerful because it is reserved for the over 65s and over 70s with multiple pathologies. We are monitoring the situation, I just heard from Aifa and if on Monday they advise us to block all the Fluad lots we will do it – declares Luca Coletto, councilor for health – but until then we will continue with the vaccination campaign. Engaging in terrorism risks causing victims among those who must protect themselves and give up out of distrust (every year in Italy the flu causes 8,000 deaths, ed). I would also like to remind you that so far we have not encountered any negative results from the administration of the anti-flu ». The fact is that family doctors are receiving hundreds of requests for clarification from their clients. “They bombard us with phone calls, but many also come to the studio to ask us if it is advisable to get vaccinated – reveals Domenico Crisarà, regional deputy secretary of Fimmg, the category acronym – but then trust in one's doctor prevails. In fact I have already injected 200 of the 250 doses received from the Local Health Authority. And anyway we don't use the Fluad». «I was vaccinated first – says Silvio Regis, secretary of Fimmg – and until the Novartis case I had noticed an increase in requests. But now we risk an involution and it's a shame, yes, it's a social alarm ». On the other hand, the Sick Court is concerned about the decision of other regions to block the vaccination campaign. "Madness - observes the Venetian president, Giuseppe Cicciù - so we would end up with hundreds of dead, not just thirteen".
01 December 2014
Vaccine block: attention is growing from Austria and Spain
30 NOVEMBER 2014 – SWI swissinfo.ch
After the blockade of some batches of the Fluad vaccine in Italy by Aifa (Italian Medicines Agency), due to a possible connection with some suspicious deaths (all among the elderly and already suffering from certain diseases, often cardiac), attention is also growing in the other European countries where the vaccine produced by the Novartis pharmaceutical company is distributed and used for the 2014-2015 vaccination campaign, such as Austria, Germany and Spain.
In Austria, the newspaper "Kleine Zeitung" reports the news of the investigations launched in Italy after the suspicious deaths, specifying that "the Fluad flu vaccine is applied in the country for active immunization in the elderly and that at the moment, according to Ages reports ( the Austrian agency for health and food safety) no side effects, serious or mild, were observed.
"The Austrian Ages is in close contact with the Italian authorities and will continue to monitor the situation closely" explains the Kleine Zeitung, recalling that "the vaccine was approved in 1997 and tested in clinical trials on tens of thousands of patients, from since more than 65 million doses have been distributed worldwide”. While another Austrian newspaper, the Kurier, is keen to specify that although attention to the problem is growing in Austria "the lots distributed in the country are not the same ones distributed in Italy".
In Germany, where the news is given, among others, on the sites "Die Welt", "Zeit online" and "Deutschland Today", it is underlined that "so far, the relationship between the vaccine and deaths has not yet been demonstrated according to the manufacturing company” and that “the defective batches of the vaccine were prepared in a Novartis plant in Tuscany”. And in Spain, where the news of suspicious deaths in Italy finds space on the sites of various media, from the newspaper "La Vanguardia" to the site of the Catholic and conservative newspaper "Abc", attempts are made to reassure readers by placing particular emphasis on the fact that, according to what the Efe news agency reports, "the suspicious doses of the vaccine would not be distributed abroad but only in Italy".
