4 die from flu shots

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Health Minister: No direct link between flu shots and deaths

By Ron Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

The Health Ministry has stopped the administration of flu vaccines after four

people died

this week and last week shortly after receiving the inoculations. Three of the

four

individuals were inoculated at the Leumit Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

in Kiryat

Gat. All three suffered from several chronic ailments, including heart disease

and diabetes.

The fourth recipient, a 67-year-old man, was insured at the Meuhedet HMO in

Petah Tikva

and suffered from serious heart disease. He was given the shot on Thursday by

his wife, a

dentist. A few hours later he was found dead on a city street.

The four persons who died are Shimon Amar, 76, from Kiryat Gat; Yitzhak Azoulay,

68,

Kiryat Gat; Nadav Yerushalmi, 53, Moshav Shekef; and Ziggo Kalenstein, 67, of

Petah

Tikva. The Health Ministry said Sunday that all four were inoculated with

vaccine from the

same series and purchased from the same manufacturer, the French pharmaceutical

firm

Sanofi-Aventis, which markets the vaccine all over the world.

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Health Minister Yacov Ben-Yizri said Sunday the ministry had asked

Sanofi-Aventis

whether unexplained fatalities had been reported in any other country. An answer

is

expected today, and if no other reports had come in, the HMOs would be allowed

to

continue inoculations, Ben-Yizri said.

The shots were being given last week only to patients at high risk from heart,

lung or

respiratory disease, high blood pressure, cancer or AIDS.

The decision to call a halt to the inoculations was made by Ben-Yizri and

ministry heads

Sunday afternoon, after the Kiryat Gat HMO reported the three deaths.

Two of the three were inoculated last Sunday. One died a day later, and the

second over

the weekend. The third person was inoculated on Monday and died three days

later.

The report of the fourth death came while Ben-Yizri was giving a press

conference, a few

minutes after he told reporters " no connection has been found between the

tragedy and

the flu inoculations. "

The three men from Kiryat Gat who died had all been inoculated in previous

years.

The Health Ministry has started an investigation into possible sources of

contamination

but so far none has been found in the vaccine; some 140,000 people were

inoculated over

the last week. The Health Ministry also investigated the medical team at the

Kiryat Gat

clinic. THe shots were administered to all three Kiryat Gat recipients by the

same nurse.

The vaccines were supplied to the clinic after the Health Ministry conducted its

usual

standards and quality tests.

Ben-Yizri noted that the decision to halt the inoculations was taken out of

" great

sensitivity and concern for the maximum safety of those receiving inoculations. "

However, he added, ministry experts had advised him to order the renewal of

vaccinations

Sunday.

In trying to find any connection between the Kiryat Gat recipients and in

response to a

question from Haaretz, Dr. Yitzhak Berlovitch, deputy director of the Health

Ministry, said

" the three were vaccinated by the same nurse, although over a period of days. "

Berlovitch, who is also head of the ministry's medical administration, said no

cases have

ever been documented either in Israel or abroad of people dying after flu

inoculations. The

deaths could also be explained as being due to the chronic illnesses from which

they

suffered, he said.

Berlovitch said no autopsies had been carried out because " the Health Ministry

has no

justification for doing so. "

Apparently no additional testing of the vaccine series will be carried out.

The head of the national center for disease monitoring in the Health Ministry,

Professor

Manfred Green, on Sunday tried to provide a statistical explanation for the four

deaths:

" About 100 people die every day in Israel from chronic diseases. These four

individuals

could be part of that group. "

The Health Ministry said it would open a hot-line jointly with the HMOs today,

from noon

until 2 P.M., to calm the public by answering questions about inoculations.

The ministry said anyone who received a flu shot and felt unwell should see his

or her

family doctor.

A total of 1.2 million vaccine doses were purchased ahead of this year's winter

flu season,

to combat the five strains of flu against which the World Health Organization

and the

Health Ministry recommends inoculation: A, B, Caledonian, Wisconsin and

Malaysian. Only

about a 10th of all inoculations needed by the public are available at present

because of

delays in growing the virus cultures by the two major vaccine manufacturers in

the U.S.

and France. The Health Ministry therefore recommends the shots first be given to

those

whose chronic diseases put them at high risk of complications from the flu,

first and

foremost the elderly and the chronically ill.