Jordan McFarland, a 14-year-old boy from Virginia, is weak and struggling to walk after coming down with a reported case of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) within hours after receiving the swine flu vaccine, or H1N1 flu vaccine.

McFarland left Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children in a wheelchair nearly a week after developing severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs following a swine flu shot.

Jordan is among the first people in the U.S. to report developing the potentially life-threatening muscle disorder after receiving the H1N1 flu vaccine this fall. Increased cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome were found in patients who received a 1976 swine flu vaccine.

Likewise, a young woman in France has also been diagnosed with GBS after a H1N1 flu shot. The woman, identified only as a health worker, was diagnosed with GBS six days after she received the swine flu vaccine, according to the French health ministry.

Swedish, Japanese, and Chinese health officials have also reported a number of serious flu vaccine side effects, including deaths of people who received the swine flu vaccine.

In China, the Ministry of Health announced that the two people, including one teacher from Hunan province, died hours after receiving their swine flu vaccine.

Chinese health officials have pulled all H1N1 flu vaccines manufactured in the same batch used to inoculate the teacher.

Fifty-four percent of Chinese residents reported in a China Daily survey that they would not get the H1N1 flu vaccine because of concerns about the shot’s safety. Among those inoculated so far in China, more than 1,200 have complained of vaccine side effects ranging from sore arms, rashes, and headaches, to anaphylactic shock and sudden drops in blood pressure.

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