BMJ  2007;334:1182-1183 (9 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39237.424537.4E

News

Questions over human papillomavirus vaccine in the US and Australia

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Questions have emerged in the United States and Australia about the effectiveness and possibly dangerous side effects of Gardasil, Merck's newly licensed vaccine for human papillomavirus.

In the US, three deaths closely time related to immunisation with the vaccine were among 1637 adverse reactions reported by Judicial Watch, a public interest watchdog. Judicial Watch obtained the reports from the Food and Drug Administration using the Freedom of Information Act. The reports were filed through the FDA's vaccine adverse event reporting system.

In Australia, 25 girls at a Catholic high school in Melbourne who had just received their first injection of the vaccine on 22 May experienced headache, nausea, and dizziness, the Age reported. Four were sent to hospital and two were admitted overnight. All were discharged. One expert called it mass hysteria. Shares of the vaccine's Australian developer, CSL, fell after news reports of the incident (www.theage.com.au, 25 . . . [Full text of this article]

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