Did HPV Vaccine Cause a British Girl's Death?

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This is an anti-cancer vaccine?

Stumbled on the article and I'm a little confused. This protects against 70 types of cervical cancer? I thought the vaccination was to immunize against the HPV virus? How do you catch HPV? And is it what causes cervical cancer? Is the author saying a Pap Smear prevents cervical cancer? What about preventing HPV in the first place?

Valerie of ID @ Jan 15, 2010 16:59:00 PM

Unreal

You know what I think is UNREAL is that thousands of women die from HPV and they are only giving out vaccines to young girls! I can understand to vaccinate them at young ages - if I had a daughter I would get her vaccinated immediately. If I was younger I would go as well to get the vaccine but I can't. I am ONLY 33 years old. I have had abnormal paps-I have horrible plantar warts and skin tags all caused by HPV. However, no-one will give me the vaccine which would help! Our government is so messed up!

Janice of MA @ Jan 08, 2010 00:02:26 AM

Put it into perspective

There are side effects.

Journal of the American Medical Association, 18 Aug. 2009

In the U.S., from 1 June 2006 to 31 Dec. 2008:

Vaccinations given: 23,000,000

Adverse reactions reported: 12,424.

For every 100,000 women:

- 8 women will faint

- 7 women will become dizzy

- 7 women will have a skin reaction at the injection site

However, 772 reactions were serious: anaphylactic shock, (a severe allergic reaction), blood clots, pancreatic failure, and motor neuron disease.

32 deaths were reported but only 20 could be verified by the researchers. The other sere either provided by Merck & Co. without further information or unverifiable secondhand reports.

That all sounds terribly drastic. However, compare it to the risk of general anaesthetic. You'd have a "general" if you were undergoing an operation. Yet the risk of death is at least 1 in 200,000, not the apparent 1 in 750,000 with Gardisil. Some doctors put the risk of GA at 1 death in 50,000 or even 1 in 10,000.

Another perspective: Perhaps 15 girls a year died of injections. Meanwhile, a survey covering 2/3 U.S. children found over 1220 deaths from child abuse in 2007, and those are confirmed cases from child services, leaving some undiscovered. And in 2006 1,593 children under 18 were killed by firearms, a rate of 2 per 100,000.

If you want to mount a campaign to save children's lives, why not pick one of those?

Calm Down @ Oct 18, 2009 01:17:28 AM

Don't panic

It turns out the girl had a massive, undetected tumour. Nobody looks for cancers in young children because they're so rare. So now that's zero deaths from the vaccine. Most adverse reactions are a little redness, soreness, or fever the next day. Would you stop with the scare tactics, already?

Some children get sick, anyway. "After" doesn't always mean "because." Some of the posts here remind me of a time when the BC government was spraying against spruce budworm. They announced the schedule in advance. On the scheduled day, hundreds of parents phoned in to complain that their children were itchy, had headaches, and had all kinds of mysterious symptoms. The only problem was that the spraying had been cancelled because of weather conditions.

If your children are ill, kindly hie them to a doctor and find out what is really wrong before lashing out against vaccination.

There has been no epidemic of strange symptoms here, where the schools are running the vaccinations to protect as many people as possible.

The drug companies did not and could not test their medicines on children, so they are dealing with people who have already been exposed to HPV. So I'd guess that the benefit is calculated for an unexposed population and that's why it's higher. You could look into the research.

It is by no means automatic that some other strain will come in and take the place of the ones giving us cancer now. That hasn't happened with diphtheria, polio, smallpox, whooping cough, measles, rubella, or mumps. The only time we get them is when anti-vaccine propaganda reduces the number of people who are protected below a safe level and then we get the same old whooping cough, measles, or mumps back again. A 14-year-old boy died of measles in Britain because of irrational anti-vax scares and, it now turns out, fraudulent research that altered dates to make it seem that pre-existing conditions suddenly appeared after vaccination.

Calm Down @ Oct 18, 2009 00:25:16 AM

wow

wow i cant believe i feel so sorry for the familys of the girls i was seriously considering getting that injection but now i will seariously think about it

jennifer cote of ND @ Sep 30, 2009 19:00:12 PM

Did HPV Vaccine Cause a British Girl's Death?

Would the schoolgirl have died in class had she not received the vaccine? Unlikely I hear you say and that is my opinion. Sudden death coinciding with the vacination may be the culprit but what role did the vaccination play? Was the schoolgirl anxious or distressed prior to the vaccination? Is there a history in her poor family of sudden deaths, I say poor because to lose a child under these circumstances must be devastating. We have not been told if she had a primary vaccination sometime earlier and if she did then an autoimmune cause may be likely.Over the past years much has been said about MMR and its problems, if there are any! There is a sense that the state may act like a juggernaut to implement, in the best interests, vaccination programmes. Maybe the use of a regulator or brake is in order until the truth is out.

Michael Alexander @ Sep 30, 2009 15:36:58 PM

Yes!!! Gardasil does KILL.

Because of my granddaughter I continue to speak out. Jessica Ericzon died on February 22, 2008. Just two days after her third shot of Gardasil. Jessie had many of the side effects that you speak of but we did not know Gardasil caused them. Her doctor said it was stress. Jessie was our sunshine and now we do not have her with us. Jess was a very healthy, full of life, smart young woman of almost 18 when she died. Her mother thought she was doing the right thing protecting her daughter from cervical cancer. Now with all the research we are doing we find that girls may only be protected for 5 years then may need another booster shot. Protected from, not cancer but from The HPV virus that could, NOT WOULD cause cervical cancer. Merck does not tell you all the health issues you can contract with this vaccine. Merck is in this for the MONEY not to protect our girls. More and more continues to come out as we probe to find more answers. Why was Gardasil fast tracked onto the market before the testing was completed? Our next generation is the Guinea Pigs for Merck. How long will it protect? The HPV virus is not an epidemic so why is it being treated as one. Again, Merck is trying to recoup from the loss they received from VIOX, which they pushed onto the public, and was killing people.

Please, before you vaccinate with Gardasil, Do your research. We wish we had.

A grandmother who knows.

Denise Melton of FL @ Sep 30, 2009 10:54:40 AM

Yes!

Agreed. I did a research paper on Gardasil deaths. I believe a suspected death of evene ONE YOUNG GIRL is enough to pull it and that education and regular pap smears are the way to go. These girls are not mature enough to make this decision for themselves on whether or not the vaccine is safe. Parents really need to educated themselves. Now we'll need to worry about the H1N1 vaccine. Oh dear.

Misha of CA @ Sep 30, 2009 10:07:21 AM

Kat.

I think this is a good article. It does bring up the conflict of should we vaccinate our children or not. We should definitely think long and hard before we do anything.

Kat of KS @ Sep 30, 2009 09:31:50 AM

Alarmed

I became alarmed when I saw the first tv ads for HPV vaccine a few years ago. I believed the ads sent out dubious claims that HPV was the leading cause of cervical cancer and that young girls in their early teens needed to be vaccinated. After researching and reading various medical journals, and especially reading some comments on this blog from parents, I am further convinced that this is specifically a pharmaceutical money scheme.

On a routine cleaning at my dentist, the hygienist was trying to convince me to get vaccinated for HPV to prevent oral cancer. I wondered why since it's mostly dealt with cervical caner. I googled the topic and found out she was assuming that I participate in oral sex. This is outrageous, unnecessary vaccination for anyone esp young girls w/ unassuming parents. New England Journal of Medicine published editorial review using placebo shots found that "it is difficult to infer both the effectiveness of vaccination and the role of nonvaccine HPV type in overall rates of precancerous lesions.”

From scientific point of view, while they are trying to eliminate the 2 strains of HPV that causes 70% of cevical caner, the other 15 or more strains can evolved if transmitted to become stronger "bugs" now their 2 competitors are eliminated. So HPV vaccine doesn't take care of the problem but can instead amplify it.

Tina of CA @ Sep 30, 2009 03:49:32 AM

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Deborah Kotz, senior writer for U.S. News & World Report, covers everything women care about when it comes to their health. She's often tapping out "Oprah-esque" confessions about how the latest news relates to her personally—whether it's on breast cancer, contraception or easing work-family stress. She'd love to hear your confessions too at onwomen@usnews.com. Also, you can follow Deborah on Twitter at twitter.com/debkotz2.

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