In the past few weeks I have had many patients and friends talk to me about the HPV (cervical cancer) Gardasil vaccine which is currently being rolled out in New Zealand schools.
Concerned mums of young girls are asking me: "should I vaccinate my daughter?"
In truth, that's a question that every mum must decide for herself, and to do so in any kind of informed way involves looking much further than the standard information available on the government websites.
To make an "informed consent" involves investigating the growing concerns relating to both the safety and efficacy of this vaccine - something that simply won't occur if you only read the glossy consent forms sent home with your daughter.
You don't have to guess which side of the Gardasil fence I stand. I'll tell you from the outset that my daughters will not be receiving Gardasil. I have written four extensive articles on Gardasil which necessitated many hours of research. What I discovered, greatly unsettled me.
From my perspective the big pharmaceutical PR machines are working overtime on this one. Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, has a great deal riding on the success of this projected blockbuster.
Their previous blockbuster, the anti inflammatory drug Vioxx, was also promoted as being "safe and effective".
To date Merck has paid US$5 billion as a result of litigation from families who lost their loved ones after taking Vioxx. Analysts now attribute somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 deaths to Vioxx use.
Don't be panicked into believing that cervical cancer will kill your daughter if she doesn't have this vaccine. The truth is that the incidence of cervical cancer is greatly in the decline in the west. In New Zealand for example around 160 cases are diagnosed annually, with a death rate of around 60 women per year. (That's about 2.5 cases per 100,000 women).
Most of these women could have lived if their cancer had been caught in the early precancer stages, through regular pap smears. While it's true that extremely aggressive cervical cancer can grow and kill in the two to three year gap between smears, this is rare.
Remember too that we already know the ways in which our daughters can protect themselves from cervical cancer. These include abstaining from cigarette smoking; practicing safe sex with condoms; limiting the number of sexual partners; eating a nutritious diet containing plenty of antioxidants, folate and selenium; and never skipping a pap smear.
The concerns regarding Gardasil are far too many to look at in this brief blog. So I'll raise just one issue...is this vaccine safe? The Merck website and government sites will assure you that it is, but dig a little deeper and the anxiety levels begin to rise.
The American Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) has had almost 11,000 notifications filed on Gardasil adverse events in America alone. While many of these are related to local soreness, dizziness and fainting, many others report serious life threatening events. Globally there are now 27 deaths reported to have occurred within a short period after Gardasil vaccination.
The American National Vaccine Information centre last year compared adverse events reported after Gardasil and the Menactra (Meningococcal) vaccine administered to girls of around the same age.
They found up to 30 times more notifications of serious adverse events after Gardasil.
They also found that, compared to Menactra, Gardasil is associated with at least twice as many emergency room visit reports (5021); four times as many death reports (29); five times as many "did not recover" reports (2017) and seven times as many "disabled" reports (261).
There have been 34 reports of thrombosis (clots which stay in a blood vessel at the site of its formation); 27 reports of lupus (a chronic autoimmune disorder); 23 reports of blood clots, 16 reports of stroke and 11 reports of vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels) following Gardasil given alone.
There are three to six times more reports of fainting after Gardasil versus Menactra and there have been 544 reports of seizures following Gardasil.
Based on their research the National Vaccine Information Centre has warned that Gardasil appears to be highly reactive. They have asked for federal health agencies to inform physicians and parents about serious health problems associated with the new vaccine...to date this has not happened.
Lynda Wharton is a health and wellbeing writer, columnist and author. She also practises as an acupuncturist and naturopath.
lynda@lyndawharton.com
www.lyndawharton.com
