Twelve-year-old girl paralysed 'after being given cervical cancer jab'

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Twelve-year-old girl paralysed 'after being given cervical cancer jab'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 6:20 PM on 14th December 2008

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A 12-year-old girl has been left paralysed from the waist down by a mystery

illness that came on half an hour after she was given the new anti-cervical

cancer jab, according to reports.

The Sunday Times today claimed Ashleigh Cave suffered headaches and dizziness

after being given the vaccination at Maricourt Catholic high school, in

Liverpool. Her condition then deteriorated swiftly and she collapsed several

times over the following days.

A week later she was admitted to hospital after losing all strength in her legs

- two months later, there has been no improvement.

Ashleigh Cave, 12, seen here with her mother Cheryl, has been bed-bound in Alder

Hey children's hospital since having a cervical cancer jab in October

Her mother Cheryl Cave, 37, blames her daughter's condition on the human

papillomavirus (HPV) jab, which was introduced in Britain in September as part

of a government-funded vaccination programme.

All girls aged 12 and 13 are being offered vaccinations with Cervarix, a drug

that stimulates the body to defend itself against HPV and protect against the

later onset of cervical cancer which is linked to the virus.

In America, where a vaccination programme using Gardasil, a similar product,

began more than a year ago, there have been dozens of serious 'adverse events'

reported in which a link to the jabs is suspected.

They include 30 deaths in addition to cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an

auto-immune disease that can cause paralysis.

The American authorities have said there is no evidence that the HPV jabs caused

these reactions.

Ashleigh's case has been logged with Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products

Regulatory Agency as a possible instance of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

It has said the illness was probably not caused by the jab.

Doctors at the Alder Hey children's hospital in LIverpool, where Ashleigh is

being treated, said that she did not have a 'pathological reaction' to the

vaccine.

But Mrs Cave said she found the timing of Ashleigh's symptoms impossible to

ignore.

On October 22, a week after being given the jab, she was admitted to Alder Hey,

where she remains.

Mrs Cave said: At first they tried to tell us she was imagining it because she

was being bullied.

'They will not mention her illness and the vaccine in the same sentence.'

The medicines agency said: 'Guillain-Barré syndrome naturally occurs in the

populations. There is no good evidence to suggest that the Cervarix vaccine can

cause it.'