This is the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Maddie Savage and

today we're heading back to a global pandemic. Not the COVID-19 outbreak, the spread of the

H1N1 virus or swine flu in 2009. It wasn't as deadly as scientists first feared, but in

some countries, including Sweden, hundreds of teenagers' lives were changed forever. After a

vaccine designed to protect them, appeared to trigger a devastating sleep disorder. I met up with

Christopher TV, who's among those affected. It's late 2009 and listening to pop and hip-hop,

playing football and learning English, Christopher TV's big interests. He's in his last year of

high school in Stockholm and doing work experience for his local council. There must have been 18.

Our boss came into our office and she said that the vaccine is available downstairs if you want

to get the vaccine. For me, it was just, I don't know, I'll go down and I'll get my shot and

I'll come back up and continue working. It was a vaccine designed to prevent swine flu,

the common name for a newly discovered virus called H1N1. The virus is contagious,

spreading easily from one person to another. The World Health Organization had announced a

global pandemic a few months earlier. In the most severe cases, people were developing life-threatening

pneumonia. I remember the media going on about young people being the ones who've been at the

highest risk. So for me, it was no brain I didn't really think twice about it. What did you

know about swine flu at that point? I just knew that it was like a really heavy flu affecting your

lungs. Countries around the world were vaccinating people against the new virus,

but while some places focused on protecting healthcare workers or those with existing health

conditions, Sweden made jabs available for everyone. It bought a vaccine called Pandemrix,

produced by the Global Pharmaceutical Giant, GlaxoSmithCline, GSK, and approved by the European Union.

61% of the population decided to take it, the highest level in the world.

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