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Hi All--

Each year for the past six or so years I've been on this list, a conversation goes around about whether or not celiacs should get a flu vaccination and whether or not the flu vaccine is GF. There are always a number of people who say they become ill following a flu shot - and I am one of those people. For the most part, I believe flu shots are probably GF, but they are not all thimerosal (mercury) free.

I was reading information about the President's proposal for the avian flu vaccine and decided to call a pharmacy to find out how it might be produced. The short of it is that the pharmacist doesn't know because no one in the U.S. is making the vaccine yet.

I called the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and spoke with a very nice person in vaccines and immunizations. She didn't seem to want to give me information about the avian flu vaccine, but she did tell me that there are companies who produce a thimerosal free influenza shot each year. One company is - Sanofi Pasteur (no contact information). Glaxo SmithKline manufactures Fluvarix, a thimerosal free flu shot though they use mercury in the processing. Evidently, it's a bit like gluten and distillation - the processing takes most of the offending agent out. Rather than contacting the companies, however, the CDC advised getting the thimerosal free vaccine through your primary care physician. In my case, I'm not certain thimerosal is the offending agent that makes me sick, so I will probably continue to NOT get the annual flu shot - the flu is a piece of cake for me compared to the reaction I get to the shot.

If someone has covered this topic recently, my apologies. If not and some of you are wondering why you get ill when you get a flu shot, it might be the thimerosal. As for the avian flu vaccine, I don't think anyone knows how that will be made yet and whether or not it will be GF.

Cheers,
Ayn in Alabama





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