Spain Withdraws Merck Gardasil Vaccine After Illnesses
Managing Editor's Note: I learned a new Spanish word while watching Sesame Street with my 14 year old daughter (who has autism.) "Peligro." Just in time, si? Please click over to NVIC HERE for detailed information about Gardasil, including media reports, how to report an injury and HPV facts that could save a girl's/woman's life.
MADRID (AFP) – Spanish health authorities have withdrawn tens of thousands of doses of a vaccine against cervical cancer after two teenagers who received the shots were hospitalised, regional authorities said on Tuesday.
A batch of nearly 76,000 doses of the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) was withdrawn from market, a government statement said, after two girls in the eastern Valencia region fell seriously ill hours after receiving them.
"One of the girls got out of intensive care this weekend and the other is still there. Both are in stable condition," a Valencia health department spokeswoman told AFP. The two girls were vaccinated last week as part of a vast government vaccination programme targeting adolescents.
The vaccine prevents the most common types of HPV, a common virus spread through sexual contact that can cause cervical cancer.
Some 500,000 cases of cervical cancer are discovered each year, according to United Nations estimates, many in developing countries. If left untreated, invasive cervical cancer is almost always fatal.
Spanish health authorities said in a statement the batch of the Gardasil brand of vaccines was distributed country-wide, with some earmarked for regional vaccination programs and the rest sold at pharmacies.
The vaccine has been available for girls since 2006, ideally before their first sexual encounter.
Sweden recently announced it would offer the vaccines to all primary school girls free of charge as of 2010.
A partir de vacunacion masiva niñas en Carmen de Bolivar, población colombiana,110 jóvenes han sido hospitalizadas al día de hoy 25 de Agosto con síntomas Hormigeo, migraña, parálisis de miembros, cambios de personalidad. Se atribuye esto a las dosis de GARDASIL recientemente aplicadas.
Posted by: Ramiro Moreno | August 26, 2014 at 03:48 PM
Spanish region resumes use of Merck & Co's Gardasil
Mon Feb 16, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSLG21940220090216
Posted by: Spain resumes use of Merck's Gardasil | February 18, 2009 at 07:16 AM
I am a Pediatric visiting RN who knew a family where the 9 year old HIV+ girl (perinatally transmitted)was given either gardasil or placebo in a study done by her Infectious Disease MD. To this day, the mother still does not know whether her daughter received gardasil or not. She is now insisting she wants to know.
Posted by: Marie | February 15, 2009 at 08:51 PM
Steve, love it, peanuts and onions....ha ha ha ha...but you forgot one, hamburgers...
Even more wicked, that kids in their wee babe toddler stages, can't speak up and say, gee, that vaccine took my brain away, sometimes for a time, sometimes forever? Nope, they say all of us are making it up, that our kids really were autisitic from the beginning but we were in denial, and all those times they talked and played, was just a figment of our imagination...though some of us has some wicked evidence on tapes and videos (personally, I can't bring myself to watch them, I may become suicidal if I did).
Even the VETS are saying, vaccines are causing problems, even autism like gut symptoms, seizures, changes in behaviors, cancers...yet they can't talk? I guess they know what population to hit, the animals which can't sue, babies that can't talk or sue, etc etc....
What consumer product enjoyes this much leniency from suiing, is beyond me?
Then, when a vaccine injures an adult or teenager, who WAS talking/obviously "normal" and they become violently ill, well, then we do something like what the F!@#? Why do our kids get so much predjudice...they are such angels, and lovely human beings...they don't deserve this shit-or their parents.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | February 11, 2009 at 04:35 PM
The recent comparison report done by the NVIC between Menactra and Gardasil is chilling as the adverse events in Gardasil are 3x's the amount of Menactra. And Menactra has been on the market since 2005! Nearly 15,000 reports of adverse events have been recorded by VAERS.
Posted by: Nina | February 11, 2009 at 11:52 AM
In the US we only react to peanuts or green onions.
Posted by: steve | February 10, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Another Gardasil victim - her story sounds like our kids' stories. The things moms can see happen to their kids, and you have to take our word for it because our kids can't talk. Listen to this girl describe the pain, its true. It sounds like myalgia, like chronic fatigue, like asthma and mito dysfunction all rolled into one.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/videos/detail/ashley-story/
Any new parent out there wondering about vaccines? Take heed, see the last part where she cries, looking for a cure? That's our story, and will be yours if you listen to the CDC and the AAP and your neighborhood pediatrician.
Where are our erstwhile peds on here - Keys, Carrie? Got anything to say to this girl here? Sorry, forgot they don't teach you this in med school. The only thing you are good for is poisoning kids. Shame on you all.
Posted by: Vaccines should be banned! | February 10, 2009 at 11:42 PM
My children go to a Catholic school here in Canada. Just a few months ago our school district had a debate about whether or not to offer Gardasil along with the Hep B vax that the children get in grade 5. Following, at our school council meeting our district trustee was just thrilled to announce that they would indeed offer this very important shot because “it wasn’t about morality, it was about preventing cancer”.
The thing that pushed me over the edge was his saying that the side effects were extremely rare. I was happy to give my perspective as the “parent of a vaccine injured child”. After I finished speaking a school administer leaned over and whispered that they were not giving their daughters the vaccine. In the published minutes for that meeting, after recording the trustee’s talk the council secretary saw fit to include that that I said vaccination is not mandatory and as this vaccine is new, parents need to do their own research. Not all the points that I made but hey, I didn’t expect anything that I said to be in the minutes.
This week whilst waiting in the dentist's reception room with a pen in my hand, I came across an ad for Gardasil in a magazine. Let’s just say that the next parent to pick up that mag will be “one more” educated!
Posted by: samaxtics | February 10, 2009 at 08:20 PM
where is that stupid AAP in all of this?
AAP must stand for: all apathic professionals? anti-advocacy pimps?
Good for Spain to end the madness so early!!
Posted by: jen | February 10, 2009 at 06:35 PM
Condoms will prevent HPV too, but God forbid we should teach girls about that.
Posted by: julie | February 10, 2009 at 06:16 PM
Let's see, Gardasil and Cervarix only protect against a few forms of HPV, which may or may not ever cause cancer; they are expensive (i.e. profitable); they have killed and maimed people; the safety trials have never been completed; they were fast-tracked and mandated anyway; and Oh! One more thing: They may actually cause HPV!
Fiji
Gardasil Vaccination Results in Three Outbreaks of Genital Warts in Fiji School Children
By Hilary White
November 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gardasil, the vaccine being pushed by governments around the world to combat the spread of human papillomavirus (HPV), has been linked in Fiji with 3 cases of outbreaks of genital warts among primary school students. HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection which causes genital warts, has been linked to the development of cervical cancer in women and governments around the world are implementing mandatory vaccination programs using Gardasil.
With the Fijian government pressing forward with mass vaccination programs, Matelita Ragogo, writing in the Fiji Times, asks, “Are our girls guinea pigs?”
She reports that within three months of the government approving Gardasil vaccinations for school girls, three primary school students were reported to have “reacted negatively” to the vaccination. Ragogo points out that although the Fijian government has approved the vaccine for use on young girls, the testing process for the drug is not expected to be completed until 2009. Nevertheless, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has “fast-tracked” approval of the drug after a six-month review process.
Posted by: Garbo | February 10, 2009 at 05:15 PM
More on Spain and Gardasil.
Last December, the spanish newspapers reported on the scandal behind the 2008 Nobel prize of Medicine awarded to Harald zur Hausen, the scientist that discovered the role of HPV in cervical cancer. It was later found that two of the jury members who voted for the award had ties with big pharma firm AstraZeneca.
In light of the scandal, the press reported that there was still a lot of opposition in Spain to recommending Gardasil as part of the Spanish national vaccine schedule. A group of 7000 spanish health professionals signed a document calling for a moratorium on Gardasil due to its dubious benefits. This group of doctors concluded that it would cost the State more than 4 billion euros ($5.16 billion) to fund the vaccine campaign before the first cervical cancer death was prevented, which would only occur 30 years into the future. They deemed this cost excessive considering that Gardasil would not cover all strains of the HPV virus, and that there is already an effective alternative method to detect cervical cancer (pap-smear).
After what we've seen in the US with Gardasil, adopting it widely is clearly not only expensive but very dangerous. If what the group of spanish concerned doctors says is true, it seems to me that more deaths would occur because of Gardasil than the number of deaths that is suppose to prevent. It seems like a big Vioxx-type scandal may be brewing, at least in Spain.
Spanish information translated from the following article.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Nobel/Medicina/papiloma/sospecha/elpepisoc/20081220elpepisoc_7/Tes
Posted by: WE SHALL OVERCOME | February 10, 2009 at 05:11 PM
Diane M. Harper, a lead researcher in the development of the humanpapilloma virus vaccine, referred to giving the drug to 11-year-old girls as "a great big public health experiment."
"It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11- to 12-year-old girls There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue."
"...it's not been tested for effectiveness in younger girls, and administering the vaccine to girls as young as 9 may not even protect them at all. And, in the worst-case scenario, instead of serving to reduce the numbers of cervical cancers within 25 years, such a vaccination crusade actually could cause the numbers to go up."
"This vaccine should not be mandated for 11-year-old girls," she reiterated. "It's not been tested in little girls for efficacy. At 11, these girls don't get cervical cancer - they won't know for 25 years if they will get cervical cancer.
"For months, Harper said, she's been trying to convince major television and print media to listen to her and tell the facts about the usefulness and effectiveness of this vaccine. "But no one will print it," she said."
"Merck was required to put together a database on the efficacy in children before Gardasil was approved, Harper said. But instead, the company put together four study sites that "are not necessarily representative, and may not even have enough numbers to determine what they need to know."
"In February, Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry bypassed his legislature and mandated it for all 11- and 12-year-old girls in his state."
"I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night," Harper said. "My concern is still, let's get women's health better. It is still a good vaccine. But let's be honest. Don't over-promise."
http://www.kpcnews.com/articles/2007/03/14/online_features/hpv_vaccine/hpv01.txt
All those that trust Merck or their political lackeys to produce the straight goods (on anything), say Aye...
[insert sound of crickets chirping]
Posted by: Randy | February 10, 2009 at 04:56 PM
According to the Spanish press, the two girls suffered convulsions and went unconcious just minutes after receiving their second dose of Gardasil. The doctors treating the first case suspected that the symptoms were not related to the vaccine, but health authorities changed their mind after the second girl was affected the following day. They are still thinking that a particular batch is at fault and have taken it off the market. But all other batches of Gardasil are still being used.
From what we know here in the US, it is NOT a problem with bad batches. I hope they find out soon enough. It seems to me that if the problems persist, and you know they will, they could end up taking Gardasil off the market in Spain. According to the spanish newspaper "EL PAIS", the HPV vaccine has been under question by public health specialists in Spain, who considered it not justified from a cost-benefit perspective, claiming that the pap-smear test is effective enough to detect cervical cancer.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/chicas/enferman/vacunarse/papiloma/elpepisoc/20090210elpepisoc_6/Tes
The largest difference between Spain and the US with respect to health care is that most people are covered under universal health care paid for by the state, as Kim pointed. Another big difference is that you won't see TV adds advertising Rx medicines there. Ads for medical products are scrutinized much more than in the US and abuses are curtailed. Lastly, even if special interests are at play in Spain as elsewhere, there are NO individual congressmen and senators whose campaigns depend directly on donations from big pharma. It seems like the ideal place for bursting the Gardasil bubble.
Posted by: WE SHALL OVERCOME | February 10, 2009 at 04:42 PM
Yes, doesn't this just make you so proud to be an American, where we don't have government interference in our right to give our kids potentially deadly drugs and vaccines? Oh, wait, don't we have the FDA who is supposed to be on this? Oh, they said Gardasil is safe? Oh, by all means, then, continue to injure and kill our children! Sorry, I tend to get extra sarcastic when reading things like this.
Posted by: Laura | February 10, 2009 at 04:26 PM
I always knew Spain was a beautiful country. Now I know that they have health officials with integrity, too. Wow, what a wild thought!
Posted by: Gayle | February 10, 2009 at 04:05 PM
Looks like their assumption is that this is potentially a bad batch. Once they investigate and find no problems with the batch, they'll assume this was coincidence and proceed as before. It won't occur to the that the vaccine itself (even if made properly) is no good. It will be interesting to see what happens though.
I wonder what other long held assumptions should be re-classified as coincidence. I dropped some tools on my foot the other night and it hurt quite a bit. I assumed the tools caused the pain, but maybe I fell into the trap of drawing a too strong a conculsion based on temporal association and my putting away of the tools properly was an unnecessary and wasteful precaution.
Posted by: Jack | February 10, 2009 at 03:17 PM
These reported illnesses are strictly coincedental. We will continue with our plans of vaccinating all American children, girls and boys, until the market is saturated, er, we mean all people are protected.
CDC
Posted by: Tim Booton | February 10, 2009 at 02:55 PM
A kink in the armor.
Is this being reported anywhere else? I didn't see it on CNN.
Posted by: Jack | February 10, 2009 at 02:42 PM
That's because healthcare is not a profit center, as it is in America.
Posted by: Stagmom | February 10, 2009 at 02:30 PM
Interesting how other countries are quicker to act on these problems than the "most powerful" nation in the world. I believe the current death toll from Gardasil in the US is 34, and over 10,000 adverse reactions.
Posted by: Lynn | February 10, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Yes, they even investigated it here, and still deemed it safe enough to continue selling (all those thousands of reports were coincidence)
Posted by: AnneS | February 10, 2009 at 02:22 PM
Unbelievable. Two girls get sick and Spain pulls the vaccine. How many girls in the US have died or had serious reactions from Gardasil? The U.S. response.....promote it more heavily.
Posted by: Libby | February 10, 2009 at 02:13 PM