Swine flu: Encyclopedia II - Swine flu - The U.S. swine flu scare of 1976

Swine flu - The U.S. swine flu scare of 1976

In 1976, a swine flu scare provided the biggest embarrassment of US President Gerald Ford's administration. In January 1976, Gerald R. Ford was vaccinated in front of press cameras. On February 5 an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death. A number of others vaccinated became paralysed. Many began to fear for President Ford's life and health.

Despite the fact that only one person died, alarmed public health officials decided that action must be taken to head off a major pandemic and they urged that every person in the United States be vaccinated for the disease. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems but about 24 percent of the population was vaccinated by the time the program was cancelled.

The vaccine was blamed for 25 deaths (more people died from the vaccine than died from the swine flu itself) and a small, but statistically significant, rise in the incidence of a rare illness called Guillain-Barré syndrome or GBS.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The U.S. swine flu scare of 1976", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki