Gardasil:A wonder vaccine we should all wonder about

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http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/337/dec02_2/a2642#205643

 

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RESEARCH:

Liew Woei Kang, Nigel Crawford, Mimi L K Tang, Jim Buttery, Royle,

Gold, Ziegler, Quinn, Sonja Elia, and Sharon Choo

Hypersensitivity reactions to human papillomavirus vaccine in Australian

schoolgirls: retrospective cohort study

BMJ 2008; 337: a2642 [Abstract] [Full text]

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A wonder vaccine we should all wonder about

n Vickers   (7 December 2008)

A wonder vaccine we should all wonder about

7 December 2008

n Vickers,

Concerned mother

N/A

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Re: A wonder vaccine we should all wonder about

So Gardasil has been given the all-clear in relation to allergies after a study

of... wait for it... 25 young women. What a joke! This is typical of the shoddy

science associated with this so called “wonder” vaccine we should all wonder

about. Clinical trials for this vaccine only looked for injection site redness

and fever/sensitivity within 24 hrs of the injection, and these are the only

adverse reactions doctors will consider now.

My 26 year old daughter has gone through 6 months of hell because of this drug.

Having never previously suffered from allergies, not even hay fever, she has

experienced months of distressing and debilitating symptoms including urticaria

and angioedema. This involved 3 potentially life threatening episodes when her

tongue and throat swelled up. She has finally been diagnosed with severe chronic

urticara which is an autoimmune disease, not an allergic reaction. Her mast

cells have been destabilised and we believe this was triggered by Gardasil. She

received the 3 injections earlier this year, in early January, late February and

the 3rd injection in mid June. Her symptoms first appeared in May and escalated

markedly in July. That is, during the 7th month when the level of antibodies

artificially raised by Gardasil are at a peak.

Interestingly, while GPs won’t even consider a connection between her condition

and Gardasil (maybe because they urged her to have it and are paid $6 to

administer it) the higher up the medical food chain we go the more open-minded

is the response. The clinical immunologist who recently diagnosed her said such

a connection was worthwhile looking into. As he said, it would be interesting to

know how many other young women have developed urticara within months of having

Gardasil. Has there been an increase in reports of “idiopathic urticaria” since

the national roll-out of this vaccine?

On 4 August 2008 the Medical Journal of Australia published an letter

“Pancreatitis following HPV vaccination”that states: “The pathophysiology

linking vaccination with pancreatitis is unclear... It has been postulated

that.. “molecular mimicry” could stimulate production of auto-antibodies, which

react with host antigens and cause autoimmunity...Therefore, an autoimmune

mechanism is possible” (p.178)

I find it incredibly cavalier that a drug should be developed, using new

“molecular mimicry” technology, and yet the only adverse reactions looked for

are injection site redness and fever/allergic reaction within 24 hours. I would

have thought auto immune response would be an obvious possibility and should

have been ruled out before this vaccine was made widely available. My daughter

is now paying the price.

Competing interests: None declared