Narcolepsy campaigners take fight to EU health commissioner

Members of a European alliance lobbying for adequate state support for hundreds of children who developed narcolepsy after receiving a swine flu vaccine will outline their concerns today to the EU health commissioner.

The 10 representatives of up to 1,000 European families, including two representatives of Irish families affected by the chronic sleep disorder, will ask Tonio Borg to commission research into new treatments for the incurable neurological condition.

They will also ask for a process to be put in place that will allow the identification of children and adults affected by narcolepsy across the EU on foot of receiving the H1N1 swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.