No major problems with swine flu jab so far

The vaccination of millions of Europeans against swine flu has yet to raise any major safety concerns, the European Union's medicines watchdog said Thursday.

About 10 million people have been vaccinated against the A(H1N1) virus across the 27-nation bloc so far and "to date, no unexpected serious safety issues have been identified", the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) said.

"The vaccine adverse effects reported so far have mainly been symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache, allergic reactions and injection site reactions, confirming the expected safety profile of the three vaccines," it said.

The London-based EMEA used information obtained from EudraVigilance, a database system used to collect and evaluate reports of suspected adverse reactions to drugs across the European Economic Area.

Thursday's update was the first of a series of weekly bulletins it intends to issue about adverse reactions to the vaccines.

Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued on November 27 show 858 people have died in Europe from swine flu since the virus first appeared in Mexico in April.

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