Posted on 09/13/2009 7:14:31 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Gabrielle "Gabi" Swank dreamed of traveling to Africa as a Christian missionary.
Now the 16-year-old Wichitan rarely leaves her house, but she's on a mission — warning girls, parents and doctors against Gardasil.
Gabi's doctor and family think the cervical cancer vaccine caused a life-threatening condition that is affecting her immune and nervous systems.
Other experts say there's no link: The vaccine is safe — and a better option than risking cervical cancer.
Whatever the case, Gabi spends her days fighting her disease and urging others to fight Gardasil.
"Preventing cervical cancer is a great idea. This vaccine could be a wonderful thing," Gabi said. "But they need to investigate it more, and they need to fix it.
"I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I'm going through."
Safety, risk report
Gardasil was designed to protect against four strains of the human papilloma virus, which account for about 70 percent of cervical cancers.
The vaccine, approved in 2006, is recommended for girls ages 9 to 26 and is administered in three shots over six months.
A report issued last month raised new questions about Gardasil's safety. The report by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the vaccine had been linked to 32 deaths and more than 700 serious or life-threatening complications, including fainting and blood clots.
At the same time, an analysis by the National Vaccine Information Center, a private vaccine safety group, found that women injected with Gardasil had triple the number of emergency room visits and up to 30 times the number of reported side effects as those given a meningitis vaccine.
"Now we know ... there are more reactions and deaths associated with Gardasil than with another vaccine given in the same age group," said Barbara Fisher, president of the nonprofit group. "It's irresponsible not to take action."
Officials with Merck, which manufactures Gardasil, say the vaccine's benefits continue to outweigh its risks, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reiterated its position that "Gardasil is a safe and effective vaccine." On Wednesday, an FDA committee recommended that the vaccine be made available to boys and men.
"We vaccinate ourselves, our children and our parents with the same vaccines that we send out to the public every day," said Jennifer Allen, a spokeswoman for Merck.
"We have reviewed all the safety information... and we remain confident in the safety profile of Gardasil."
Since its launch, more than 50 million doses of Gardasil have been distributed around the world, Allen said, with more than 26 million in the U.S.
Post-vaccine changes
Gabi, a junior at Wichita South High School, got her first Gardasil shot in November 2007. She lobbied her mother to get the vaccine, spurred in part by Merck's television campaign.
"Everyone at school was like, 'Have you gotten the shot yet? You have to get it,' " Gabi said. "It was like the anti-cancer shot, so we all thought it was a great thing."
Shortly after her first injection, Gabi developed conditions that seemed unexplainable: excessive fatigue, headaches, muscle pain and numbness in her hands and feet.
Her condition worsened after subsequent shots, said Shannon Shrag, Gabi's mother. Gabi's face, hands and feet swelled. She began losing hair. Her body ached most of the time. No one connected her symptoms with the vaccine.
About three months after her final Gardasil shot, Gabi collapsed from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. Several exams and trips to the emergency room left doctors perplexed. Gabi, a varsity cheerleader, gymnast and honor roll student, assumed she had overworked herself.
"That was the beginning of a horrific battle," Schrag said. "Trying to get answers to what was happening to my daughter, trying to find someone who was willing to help her and not tell her she was crazy."
Eventually, Gabi was diagnosed with lupus and cerebral vasculitis, potentially fatal autoimmune and nervous system diseases that have "totally changed my life," she said.
Gabi is too weak to attend school most days. She has seizures that paralyze parts of her body. She takes more than 30 pills a day and recently began lengthy intravenous treatments.
Gabi's neurologist, Dwight Lindholm, blames the Gardasil vaccine for her condition.
"She was perfectly healthy before she started the vaccine. The symptoms began immediately after her first shot and grew progressively worse," Lindholm said.
"I'd say that's good evidence that it's related to the vaccine."
Tragic coincidence
Others say it's likely a tragic coincidence.
Tom Moore, an infectious disease physician and clinical professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, said anecdotal cases like Gabi's are powerful but unscientific.
"Unfortunately, people get lupus all the time. They develop autoimmune conditions. And the disease is often diagnosed in girls in that age group," Moore said.
"To say on the basis of a single case that this was definitely related to the vaccine and, 'By the way, no one should get the vaccine' — that message is irresponsible, and it's at odds with the information that is available."
No vaccine is without risk or side effects, Moore said.
"But in general, these vaccines are as safe as they can possibly be ... and much safer than the risk of getting cervical cancer."
Allen, the Merck spokeswoman, added: "We do not believe that reported autoimmune diseases have been caused by Gardasil.... What we have seen so far does not show any causal relationship."
Support for Gabi
Gabi's isn't the only family that thinks their daughter was harmed by Gardasil. Reports in the Dallas Morning News, U.S. News & World Report, CBS News and other outlets have pointed to several deaths unofficially linked to the vaccine.
More than 100 Facebook pages and petitions urge doctors to stop administering Gardasil, including one titled "Pray for Gabi Swank — Gardasil Victim," which has almost 4,500 members.
An Australian film crew has been chronicling Gabi's life over the past several months, including her appearance in the South High homecoming court last winter that was cut short by a violent seizure and trip to the emergency room.
"I had this awesome dress, and my hair and makeup looked great. And I was just vomiting all over the hospital parking lot," Gabi said. "The camera was right there catching everything. It was like Lindsay Lohan or something."
Friends and classmates have organized fundraisers to offset the family's medical costs. They're selling T-shirts with the phrase, "I don't want to be one less" — a nod to the Gardasil catchphrase, "Be one less," which refers to one less case of cervical cancer.
Gabi's prescriptions cost almost $2,000 a month. Schrag was laid off from her job in pharmaceutical sales last year and has stayed home to care for Gabi. Her husband, Derek, works for Chance Industries. In January, the family lost their south Wichita house to foreclosure and moved to a small duplex.
"Our priority right now is Gabi's health, getting her better," Schrag said.
She struggles with guilt over Gabi's condition, saying she never considered that the vaccine her daughter begged for could have serious side effects.
Because cervical cancer runs in her family, "We thought what we were doing was protecting Gabi," Schrag said. "We didn't want to give cancer the opportunity to invade her body in any way."
Gabi says she "cried all the time" when she first learned the severity of her condition. Her mother and doctors say she may not survive.
But now, "I've accepted it. This has happened to me," she said. "I don't want it to keep happening to other girls."
Gabi Swank, 16, has been diagnosed with the terminal disease cerebral
vasculatis after she was given Gardasil, a human pappilomaavirus vaccine.
Gabi Swank, 16, and mother Shannon Schrag sort through some of Gabi's
medications. She has been diagnosed with the terminal disease cerebral
vasculatis after she was given Gardasil, a human pappilomaavirus vaccine.
Gabi Swank's medications cost over $2,000 month, not counting her
in-home chemo treatments. She has been diagnosed with the terminal
disease cerebral vasculatis after she was given Gardasil, a human
pappilomaavirus vaccine.
If you want on or off my Gardasil ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.
I was one of the only moms who skipped it last year for my 6th grade daughter...
Was there a lot of pressure to get your daughter immunized?
I would cut off my right arm before either of my daughters got this vaccine.
My Goddaughter is 20. She said no too.
It prevents only a small percent of the virus’ linked to cervical cancer. It does not prevent the cancer. They are marketing it wrong.
No, our state lets you opt out for philosophical opp, and so far it isn’t even one of the mandatory shots, so... The other moms did it without question, though!
And the lies continue. Well, they aren't really, lies, just not the whole truth. Gardasil does not protect against all causes of cervical cancer, only about 60% of them, and even that depends on your ethnicity. Plus it's not yet known if this is 100% effective, nor that a booster shot isn't needed some time in the future. Then there's side effects/reactions, including death, which are starting to pile up. Another problem is that it makes those who received this stuff think they are safe, which they are not, because there are still several other strains of papilloma virus which gardasil has no effect on, plus it causes young women to skip yearly pap smear testing which is still the only way cervical cancer can be detected in early stages while it's treatable.
The best way to prevent cervical cancer from exposure to papilloma virus is still abstinence, avoiding sex with multiple partners and partners who have had multiple partners. Other cancers can also be avoided by avoiding the pill, and practicing abstinence.
I did the math on this once, when Gardasil first came out. Less than 1% of the female population gets cervical cancer. What Merck actually means is that the profits are worth the risk.
This is rubbish. Unless there is actual proof that the injections cause any problems, this is just another case of mass hysteria. How many other girls from her school got the vaccine? Of those that got the shots, how many of them are sick? Then let’s look at girls in her town or radiating out over 50 miles and see how many girls have come down with symptoms. Until a pattern can be determined, this girl’s accusation is based on no evidence what so ever.
Tell that to the 32 parents who buried their child because of a totally unnecessary and unproven vaccine.
Sue them for everything they have.
from the article:
“On Wednesday, an FDA committee recommended that the vaccine be made available to boys and men.”
I don’t understand this.
Others say it's likely a tragic coincidence. Tom Moore, an infectious disease physician and clinical professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, said anecdotal cases like Gabi's are powerful but unscientific.
"Unfortunately, people get lupus all the time. They develop autoimmune conditions. And the disease is often diagnosed in girls in that age group," Moore said.
This statement really gets me. This is the same thing they say about autism. Thousands of parents swear their children changed right after receiving the vaccinations, but they say it is just a coincidence because that is the age they start showing signs of autism.
Last I heard, and it was somewhat recently, they've found the vaccine is only good for five years.
Imagine that.
It prevents HPV (Human Papilloma Virus, an STD). Guys get this too....
It’s also rubbish that the vaccine is needed at all.
Moral behavior and yearly PAP tests, can go much further to reducing the cervical cancer rate than anything else on the docket.
This was developed and marketed by Merck, hardly a name in the pharm industry associated with integrity considering some of the products they have marketed and the number of people those have killed.
Yeah, and until it's *scientific* they won't listen to reason.
So, how many people have to die before it becomes *scientific* evidence?
HPV is a virus, not and STD. One type of the virus can cause genital warts. HPV can also go away on it’s own.
Obviously Gabi's mother was misinformed as well. It doesn't not protect against those kind of cancers at all, just the ones (supposedly) that result from repeated infections from papilloma virus, which can only result from sex with multiple infected partners- a promiscuous lifestyle to put it politely.
And even then depending on ethnicity, it offers even less protection because some strains are more prevalent among certain ethnicities that Gardasil has no effect whatsoever on.
Abstinence, or a least a monogamous relationship with trusted partners and yearly pap smears are the best ways to prevent cervical cancers caused by repeated papilloma virus exposure, as well as other cancers.
my girls aren’t getting it. over a year ago the doctor’s office tried to get my 13 year-old vaccinated. i said no way. esp. glad that i know it’s only “good” for 5 years and i had started to hear of the side effects.
i’[ve had a few talks with my girls regarding this vaccine, what it “protects” against and they only way they can be sure of not getting hpv, abstinence.
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