Friday, January 4, 2008

Some Girls Fainting After Receiving HPV Vaccine

ATLANTA - The groundbreaking vaccine that prevents cervical cancer in girls is gaining a reputation as the most painful of childhood shots, health experts say.
Health officials have touted the Gardasil vaccine as an important new protection against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted virus. In recent months, they’ve also noted reports of pain and fainting from the shot.

During its first year of use, reports of girls fainting from vaccinations climbed, but it’s not clear whether the pain of the cervical cancer vaccine was the reason for the reaction.
“This vaccine stings a lot,” said Patsy Stinchfield, an infectious disease expert at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, speaking at a recent meeting of vaccination experts in Atlanta.

It sure does, said 18-year-old Lauren Fant. She said other shots tend to hurt only at the moment of the needle stick, and not after the vaccine plunges in. “It burns,” said the college freshman from Marrietta, Ga. Pain usually briefThe pain is short-lived, girls say; many react with little more than a grimace. But some teens say it’s uncomfortable driving with or sleeping on the injected arm for up to a day after getting the shot. Officials at Merck & Co., which makes the vaccine, acknowledge the sting. They attribute it partly to the virus-like particles in the shot. Pre-marketing studies showed more reports of pain from Gardasil than from dummy shots, and patients reported more pain when given shots with more of the particles.
Meanwhile, U.S. health officials have noticed a rise in reports of vaccine-associated fainting in girls. From 2002-2004 there were about 50 reports of fainting; from 2005 until last July, there were about 230. About 180 of those cases followed a shot of Gardasil, which came on the market in 2006.

But it’s not clear that Gardasil’s sting is related to the fainting increase, said Dr. Barbara Slade, an immunization safety specialist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Teens tend to faint from needles, so a three-dose vaccine for adolescents would be expected to prompt some added fainting, she said. Researchers aren’t sure why teens faint more than other age groups, but nervousness may be a factor.

Gardasil is the first vaccine approved specifically to target the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical and vaginal cancer. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for girls ages 9 to 26.

Preliminary studies indicate only 10 to 20 percent of them have gotten at least one dose.
But researchers said those rates are due to reasons other than worries about pain, including Gardasil’s $120-a-shot price, limited supplies initially and mixed feelings by some parents and doctors about a vaccination that assumes girls have sex.


Does anyone know why they will not give this vaccine to women over the age 26? If you test negative for the virus couldn't you still get the vaccine to be protected from getting the virus no matter what your age? I'd really like to know whythere is an age limit on this vaccine....

3 comments:

Vicki said...

don't know Jo. Not even sure when I should take Madison to have this done

joanne said...

I don't know either, I guess she has until she's 24 lol. I didn't know that it was a series of 3 shots either until I read this. I also don't get the parents who are opposed to this vaccine for the reason that it will cause promiscuity. Huh? All the sex ed that they teach kids warns against STD's, AIDS & unplanned pregnancy, not once have I ever heard don't have sex because you might contract cervical cancer. That reasoning makes no sense to me. So I suppose if they found a vaccine for AIDS they would be against that for the same reasoning? That kind of thinking is just ridiculous.

Jennifer said...

The reason is Merck did not get FDA approval for offering to women over 26. Also the vaccine is more effective if you have never had HPV, which many women over 26 have. More test results are needed for that approval. I know women over 26 who have gotten the vaccine as well as doctors who recommend it as well.

Another HPV vaccine is due out soon Cervarix that does not have the age restriction.