Health authorities see no link between flu shots, deaths, will go ahead with vaccine program

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SEOUL. KAZINFORM The head of South Korea's public health body said Wednesday there was no direct link between flu shots and recent reported deaths and the government will go ahead with the nationwide flu vaccine program.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), told a media briefing that the KDCA will conduct thorough investigations into the recent deaths of nine people who got flu shots.

«We have not found a direct connection between deaths and vaccines, or a relation between adverse effects of flu shots and deaths,» said KDCA chief Jeong Eun-kyeong. «Considering no major severe adverse effects have been reported from a specific vaccine, we decided not to stop flu vaccinations,» Yonhap reports.

The KDCA said two deaths may be related with anaphylaxis shock, a serious allergic reaction after immunization.

Of the nine deaths, health authorities are currently conducting epidemiological investigations, including autopsies, on eight cases.

So far, 12.97 million people have received flu shots, with 8.36 million of them getting the shots for free under the state-run program.

Earlier, health authorities reported that a 68-year-old man on the country's southern resort island of Jeju and a 78-year-old man in Daegu have died after getting the shots.

Gyeonggi Province also reported two deaths from people who received the shots at public centers in Gwangmyeong and Goyang.


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