Cervarix jab not to blame

Cervarix jab cleared of blame

Following on from reports yesterday that a UK schoolgirl from Coventry, England, had died just hours after receiving the HPV vaccine, reports have now surfaced saying the girl had a serious underlying medical condition, suggesting the vaccination was most unlikely to have caused the death.

The good news for the vaccine has been backed by NHS Coventry, the local nation health service outlet, who confirmed that though the girl - named locally as Natalie Morton - was given GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix jab at her school on Monday and fell ill just a few hours later, a post-mortem had revealed a serious underlying medical condition likely to have caused her death.

The UK government has now said its national cervical cancer immunisation programme should continue.

As an immediate precaution, the Department of Health had ordered the batch of vaccine used at the girl's school to be quarantined, but also insists there is no reason to stop the programme from now continuing.

The support has also been backed up by public health minister Gillian Merron, who told the BBC: "We hope that girls continue to protect themselves against cervical cancer by having this vaccine."

It was in September 2008 that a routine programme of vaccinating 12 and 13-year-old girls started using the Cervarix vaccine, with the current catch-up campaign for older girls soon following suit.

According to official statistics, more than 1.4 million doses have been given out, with a million girls having safely received the jab and 4,657 suspected reactions being reported.

Despite this, Cervarix, licensed for use in Europe since September 2007, remains critical in the fight against cervical cancer. This is because, while there are 13 types of HPV are known to cause cancers, Cervarix protects against the two strains that cause more than 70 percent of cases.

30/09/09

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