FoI request raises doubts over safety of vaccine

FoI request raises doubts over safety of vaccine

The Sunday Express reports that three deaths have been linked to the controversial vaccine that health officials want to give to all 12-year-old girls. Doctors suspect the jab, which protects against a sexually transmitted human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer, may also be linked to 1,700 “adverse reactions”. Reports from the US, where the Gardasil vaccine has been used for nearly a year in some states, reveal that three victims died soon after receiving the injection. They were aged 12, 19 and 20.

Reports suggest that they suffered blood clots or heart attacks. Hundreds of others may have suffered adverse side effects including paralysis, seizures and miscarriages. But Nicholas Kitchin, medical director of the manufacturers Sanofi Pasteur MSD, said the fact that symptoms were reported after a vaccination did not necessarily mean they were caused by the vaccine.

The news comes just days after the Department of Health announced the drug would be added to the childhood immunisation programme from autumn 2008.

Sanofi Pasteur MSD had not planned to release the data, but it was obtained under freedom of information laws by lobbyists Judicial Watch.

Sex virus vaccine linked to three deaths (Sunday Express, 24 June 2007)