(NaturalNews) The "cervical cancer" vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV) is between 5 and 26 times more likely to cause severe, potentially fatal allergic reactions in young women than other vaccines, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia, and published in the
Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Researchers compared the occurrence of severe allergic reactions among 114,000 young women who had received Merck's
Gardasil vaccine in 2007 with the rate among
women of similar age who had received other
vaccines.
Gardasil protects against four
HPV strains associated with cervical cancer and genital warts.
The researchers found eight confirmed and four suspected cases of anaphylaxis among women who had received Gardasil, which translated into 2.6 cases per 100,000 vaccines. In contrast, there were only 0.1 anaphylaxis cases per 100,000 women who received a meningitis
vaccine in 2003.
Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can cause rash, nausea and breathing problems, and can be fatal in the most extreme cases.
HPV vaccines have come under increased scrutiny recently, with a recent article in the
New England Journal of Medicine calling their effectiveness into question. The authors noted that while the vaccines have only ever been tested on women between the ages of 15 and 24, they are regularly given to younger girls - even though there is no knowledge of how those patients might be affected. In addition, because the vaccines are so new, it is also impossible to know how long their protective effects will last, or how they might affect women's
natural defenses against other strains of HPV.
The authors concluded that HPV vaccination is not cost-effective for women over the age of 17.
Because
HPV vaccines do not protect against all strains of the
virus that cause cervical cancer and because a woman who has previously been exposed to the virus receives no protection from the vaccine, even vaccinated women are advised to continue receiving regular Pap smear tests.
Sources for this story include:
www.reuters.com.
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