Extract

Safety monitoring of H1N1 influenza vaccine is an important component of the vaccine program [1].We recently reported the risk of fatal adverse events in elderly Japanese patients given H1N1 influenza vaccine [2]. Japanese physicians recently informed their patients of the risk of H1N1 influenza vaccine, although no formal safety information has been published. We investigated the trend in frequencies of fatal cases and the formal and informal communication tools used among Japanese physicians and patients.

We searched Nikkei Telecom, a Web-based database containing all Japanese newspaper articles, for articles on the safety of H1N1 influenza vaccine.We also searched for articles on the vaccine's safety in 5 major weekly magazines: Weekly Gendai, Weekly Post, Weekly Bunshun, Weekly Asahi, and Weekly Shincho. We searched for safety information via Google and Twitter as well. The study period was from 19 October 2009 through 31 January 2010.

To investigate the trend in frequencies of fatal cases after H1N1 influenza vaccination, we collected the numbers of fatal cases and estimated recipients from the information provided by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

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