2009 swine flu pandemic in Europe

The 2009 flu pandemic in Europe was part of a pandemic involving a new strain of influenza, subtype H1N1. H1N1 is commonly called swine flu. The pandemic infected at least 125,550 people in Europe. There were 458 confirmed deaths in Turkey, 438 confirmed deaths in Russia, and 457 confirmed deaths in the United Kingdom.

Multiple cases of narcolepsy developed in youth as the result of a vaccine. Because Sweden and Finland both only used Pandemrix, "an adjuvanted influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline", the narcolepsy was attributed to it. "In July 2011 the European Medicines Agency restricted the use of Pandemrix to people over 19 years old, as early evidence of the narcolepsy link emerged in Scandinavia." In 2013, the UK Health Protection Agency concluded that Pandemrix "was associated with a risk of one narcolepsy case for every 55,000 children vaccinated. The figures suggest that altogether about 700 cases of narcolepsy in children across Europe may be associated with Pandemrix." No link was found to narcolepsy in adults. In 2015, the UK vaccine damage scheme was forced to pay £120,000 to a seven-year-old boy who developed narcolepsy and was "left severely disabled by narcolepsy caused by the [Pandemrix] vaccine". More than 60 similarly affected others in the UK were eligible to be compensated through the Vaccine Damage Payment Act. Speculation developed that the powerful chemical adjuvant called AS03 was responsible. It was later found in 2019 that Pandemrix-induced narcolepsy is associated with genes related to immunity and neuronal survival.