Scientists investigating why a GlaxoSmithKline flu vaccine triggered narcolepsy in some people say they have the first solid evidence the rare sleep disorder may be a so-called “hit-and-run” autoimmune disease.
The researchers were trying to find out why, of two different flu vaccines widely deployed during the 2009/2010 swine flu pandemic, only one — GSK’s Pandemrix — was linked with a spike in cases of narcolepsy.
In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, they said the answer could lie in a protein in the H1N1 flu strain found in high amounts in the GSK shot but at much lower levels in the other vaccine, Novartis’ Focetria.
New Evidence on GSK Flu Vaccine Link to Narcolepsy
