Concerns over safety of cervical cancer vaccine after 1,300 girls experience adverse side-effects

Daily Mail ^ | 09 Mar 2009 | Daily Mail

[BGHater]

More than 1,300 schoolgirls have experienced adverse reactions to the controversial cervical cancer jab.

Doctors have reported that girls aged just 12 and 13 have suffered paralysis,convulsions and sight problems after being given the vaccine.

Dozens were described as having pain 'in extremity' while others suffered from nausea, muscle weakness, fever, dizziness and numbness.

The vaccine is being given to girls under a Government programme to prevent women from developing cervical cancer.Ministers say it will ultimately save 700 lives a year.

Some have dubbed it the 'promiscuity jab' because it is given to girls to protect against the sexually-transmitted HPV virus which causes 70 per cent of cervical tumours.

Last night campaigners called for the vaccination campaign to be suspended in the light of the published side-effects.

But Government health experts insisted the Cervarix vaccine was safe and that the total of 1,340 reports was to be expected,given that more than 700,000 girls were vaccinated last year.

They also said many of the reactions resulted from the act of injection rather than the vaccine, and said there was no evidence that the jab caused any of the serious conditions such as paralysis.

Cancer charities urged parents to continue allowing their daughters to have the jabs, saying any risks were so minor and unproven that they could not outweigh the benefit of possibly saving lives.

The vaccination programme of young secondary school girls began in September last year following clinical trials on more than 18,000 women under the age of 26. Critics have claimed that not enough pre-pubescent girls were involved.

The vaccine, which is administered in three doses, is also being given to girls aged 17 and 18. This will ensure that by 2011, all those under the age of 18 will have been vaccinated.

[Tax-chick]

I can drive the van everywhere, but the car uses less gas and is easier to park!

[mysterio]

but the culture war has lost out to the sexual revolution.

Well, I suppose if you only take the data back to Victorian times, things have changed when it comes to sexual behavior. However, if you consider all of the data back to mankind's beginnings, people have been sexually active pretty early in life for the most part. Most girls are capable of reproduction by early teenage years, as are most boys. That's not by accident. Humans used to only have a life expectancy of 40 years. Reproduction in the teenage years, however, is no longer necessary or preferable in most cultures now.

[BillM]

According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics: 2005 Incidence and Mortality Web site, 11,999 women in the U.S. were told that they had cervical cancer in 2005,* and 3,924 women died from the disease.2 It is estimated that more than $2 billion† is spent on the treatment of cervical cancer per year in the U.S.3

Reference CDC

[mysterio]

The number I posted was the worldwide number of those killed by the disease.

[Gabz]

.....the car uses less gas and is easier to park!

Gee, those are the exact same excuses hubby uses when he decides to take my car instead of his pickup. Of course he then proceeds to use my car keys and "forgets" to leave the keys to the truck in case I need to go somewhere.........MEN

[republicanbred]

Just a warning here, it is to prevent the virus caused by numerous sexual partners so it is not something you are going to catch without a choice involved. Also, a few of my teenage daughters’ friends have gotten it who had severe reactions. One possible side effect of GI disorders caused her such acute pain she missed a semester of school. Before you consider getting your daughter this injection, goggle it’s side effects first. Not pretty. Also, why introduce something into your body that prevents something you could prevent by choice? And possible side effects later in life we know nothing about. Crazy!

[angcat]

Not getting it until she is 18 and it is better tested. Dr. Liberal wanted my daughter to have it at age 12 and advised me in front on my daughter that “she will behaving sex in a few years”. I fired the B—ch!

[Gabz]

I don’t blame you for firing her, I would have done the same thing.

My husband said the doc had no problem with his position against the vaccine, but he did remind hubby we will have to sign a form stating we were informed of the vaccine but declined it.

[BillM]

Why then cite the 1300 adverse in the UK?

Worldwide statistics are not US statistics. They contain overwhelming numbers from the 3rd world.

There are more than 150,000,000 women in the US. 3900 is not a large percentage.

[mysterio]

40 million doses have been administered. 7,802 have reported side effects. That’s .02 percent, if my math is correct.

[BillM]

Many side effects are not reported. That statistic is weak.
Since we are giving this vaccine to transpubescent females, it will take years to know if there are long term effects.

Thalidomide didn’t show up as a primary side effect. It showed up in birth defects considerably down the road.

[SunkenCiv]

girls aged just 12 and 13 have suffered paralysis,convulsions and sight problems after being given the vaccine. Dozens were described as having pain 'in extremity' while others suffered from nausea, muscle weakness, fever, dizziness and numbness

if this happened in the US, the parents would already have been calling lawyers, and vice versa.

[Vigilanteman]

I have always been extremely honest with her regarding sexual behavior.

Good for you and good for putting up with being uncomfortable. It will be worth it, if it hasn't already been.

We've raised three of the best girls anyone could hope for. Our youngest caused us the most worries as she came very close to the boundry lines.

It didn't help that she was drop-dead gorgeous either. But we had and enforced a very strict and non-negotiable rule about no one-on-one dating until age 16. Not long after her 16th birthday, she earned that coveted driver's license and she asked to borrow the car one Saturday morning. I asked her why and she told me she was taking all of her clothes which she considered provocative or immodest to Goodwill. All I could do to keep from crying was give her a big hug (which she didn't much appreciate)!

[mysterio]

There will always be risks, and sometimes treatments are found to be harmful. However, cervical cancer is known to be harmful / fatal. The risk that this vaccine is not going to behave like the vast majority of vaccines is pretty low.

If it's somebody else's kid, I'd say study it (and study the data, not what some hyperbolic anti-vaccine conspiracy site tells you) and make your decision. If it's my kid, I'd most likely get them vaccinated.

[pray4liberty]

And yet even with condoms in schools, STD rates are high.

Condoms are like jewelry...doesn't do you any good unless you put it on.

[pray4liberty]

I'd sure hate to be one of those paralyzed girls who took the vaccine and worse yet, her mother who insisted she have it.

Personally, I think 12 or 13 is just too young for some vaccines. It should wait until after sexual maturation. Who knows what this vaccine may do to their reproductive systems by getting it too young? These girls are the guinea pigs...

If the HPV vaccine makes a generation of women barren one day, then call it karma for the sexual revolution and abortion.

[a fool in paradise]

Even then, a condom on a banana offers no protection, whether you put it in the fridge or not.

[a fool in paradise]

The girls who would suffer from state imposed HPV vaccination would not be victims of the sexual revolution or abortion rights movement, they’d be victims of the State.

[a fool in paradise]

You don’t have to have multiple partners. The boy she has sex with may be infected since HE’S NOT BEING VACCINATED.

Again, does this not work on men? If not, why not since they carry and transmit HPV.

[metmom]

HPV vaccine ping