Schoolgirl, 14, dies and three classmates taken ill after being given new cervical cancer vaccine
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:33 PM on 28th September 2009
A 14-year-old schoolgirl today died shortly after being given the new cervical cancer vaccine.
The teenager collapsed at her school in Coventry after receiving the jab as part of a national immunisation programme.
She was taken to hospital but doctors were unable to save her.
Three of her classmates also suffered possible side-effects after being injected with Cervavix, which protects against human papillomavirus (HPV), this afternoon.
None of the other girls needed hospital treatment. Health officials have impounded the batch of vaccine so further tests can be carried out.
The death is believed to be the first linked to the jab since a nationwide vaccination programme began this month.
The girl's parents have been informed of her death. The health authority has also contacted the parents of other children at the school.
Dr Caron Grainger, Joint Director of Public Health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City, said: 'A 14-year-old girl was taken ill at a school in Coventry and was taken to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire where she later sadly died.
'Our sympathies are with the girl's family and friends at this difficult time.
'The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine at the school.
University Hospital Coventry, where a 14-year-old girl died. Although it is too early to link the death to the vaccine, the batch has been impounded for tests
'No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.'
'NHS Coventry has taken the proactive step of impounding the batch of vaccine being used as a precautionary measure.
'We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy.'
A spokesman for the trust added that three girls at the same school - which has not been named - had complained of 'dizziness and nausea' after being given the injection. But none of them had required hospital treatment.
The government is currently carrying out a national vaccination of all schoolgirls aged 12 and over using Cervarix. By 2011 all girls under 18 will have been offered the jab.
Cervarix v Gardasil
Cervarix was chosen for the NHS programme because it offered 'best overall value for the NHS'.
The vaccine, made by GlaxoSmithKline, beat off its rival Gardasil, made by Merck, for the lucrative contract last year.
The jab is currently being offered to girls aged 12 and 13 years to protect against strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and causes most cases of cervical cancer.
Both vaccines are equally effective against HPV strains, but Gardasil also protects against 90 per cent of genital warts.
However, the Department of Health secured a deal which meant a catch-up programme could be offered to older girls.
Around £100 million was earmarked for the programme involving young girls, while the two-year catch-up programme was expected to cost a further £20 million.
The NHS pays £80 a dose, plus admin and staff costs, and three jabs are given altogether.
The decision to implement a mass programme prompted a heated debate about the safety of the vaccine and if offering the treatment would prompt teenagers to engage in more sexual activity.
Britain is the only country in the world to have chosen Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, for a widespread vaccination programme instead of Gardasil, a rival vaccine made by Merck.
A UK-wide programme is currently running to vaccinate girls against HPV, which causes around 70 per cent of cervical cancer.
It is mostly transmitted through sexual contact so vaccination efforts currently target teenage girls before they become sexually active.
Experts hope the jab will revolutionise the approach to beating the disease, which kills more than 1,000 women in the UK each year. A complete course of the vaccine costs the NHS £242 per person.
High Street pharmacy giant Boots earlier this month offered the cervical cancer jab to women aged 18 to 54 in stores across England and Wales.
Teenage girls are targeted through a national programme which does not include older women, even though trials show vaccination can also work for them.
The Boots service, costing £405 for three shots of Cervarix vaccine, aims to fill in the gap.
Around 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year.
The death will reignite the row over how ministers chose a cheaper injection over a more effective option used in the U.S. and most European countries.
Cervarix only protects against four strains of HPV, while Gardasil protects against four, plus genital warts.
But the Health Protection Agency recommended Cervarix, saying it would save the NHS some £18.6million a year.
Hidden risks of mass vaccination programmes
Thousands of side effects including some deaths after the use of HPV vaccines have been reported from around the world.
Government officials in the UK and elsewhere maintain the benefits outweigh the small risks of harm associated with any vaccine.
But campaigners claim the protection from jabs against cervical cancer is being bought at too high a price, considering there are other ways to prevent girls developing the disease such as regular smear tests.
In the UK there have been 4,000 side effects from Cervarix officially logged by the drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency, from 2,000 patients.
But Jabs, the campaign group, says there have been cases where girls have suffered seizures, paralysis, severe headaches and blurred vision.
One 18-year-old girl has suffered multiple seizures every day since getting Cervarix, it claims, while another has been battling a form of paralysis since Easter.
There have been isolated deaths reported in Europe from countries where Gardasil has been used for mass vaccination, while the same vaccine has been implicated in the death of a 13-year-old from an autoimmune disease in the US.
The mass vaccination programmes advocated by public health doctors are necessary to confer the biggest benefits - the more girls you vaccinate, the greater the chance of eventually banishing the disease.
But this creates the problem of magnifying even the tiniest risk of a life-threatening side effect.
When millions of girls are getting jabs, then a one in a million risk becomes a reality several times over.
The production of millions of doses of vaccine year-on-year carries a different kind of risk, that of a rogue batch or contamination of a particular lot of vaccines at factory level or during distribution.
Jackie Fletcher, founder of Jabs, regrets that more follow-up has not been carried out before HPV vaccines have been embraced by the public health community.
She said 'The verdict from Government officials is always that side effects are to be expected, and anything serious that happens will be within an expected range.'
For example, the paralysing condition Guillain Barre syndrome affects a small number of teenage girls each year, therefore if a girl is struck within days of having an HPV jab this is likely to happen in the normal run of events. Correlation does not mean causation, say the experts.
However, Mrs Fletcher is concerned that here, as in the U.S., insufficient attention is paid by the authorities to reports of side effects.
The reporting systems are voluntary and some parents fear there may be a cluster of side effects that remain largely invisible because they are not being investigated.
Mrs Fletcher said 'None of these girls getting jabs against cervical cancer is certainly at risk of the disease.
'There are other ways to keep them safe that do not involve using a vaccine so we have to be very clear about the benefits and risks of vaccination in order to keep these girls safe.
'The risk-benefit equation with HPV vaccination is severely skewed in my opinion and unless the authorities scientifically investigate all these girls who suffered a reaction then we will never have the scientific evidence to say how truly safe it is.'
Read more:
Schoolgirl, 14, dies after being given cervical cancer jab | Mail Online
14 y.o. UK girl dies after receiving HPV vaccine
Natalie Morton died in hospital following a cervical cancer jab at school
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