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The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to temporarily stop calling for girls aged 12-16 to receive a new cervical cancer prevention vaccine after reports of cramps and convulsions in early recipients.
According to the health ministry, out of 1,968 girls who reported suffering from such side effects, around 38 reported suffering from aches and pains spreading across their entire bodies after receiving the vaccine, TBS reported Saturday. Doctors say that eight are still suffering from the side effects of the drug.
Until the cause of the pain is understood, the ministry says it has temporarily ceased actively recommending that girls receive the vaccine, which was introduced this April.
© Japan Today
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smithinjapan
BOOM! I and others said WAYYYY back when the drug companies and government were pimping this out on little girls that they should WAIT until there was actual follow-up before trying to make the shots mandatory. But as with other drugs it's all about the money. Well, I hope they get sued for it.
Cricky
It's used widely, might have more to do with the unique DNA here. Being special does have side effects.
Frungy
Hold on Japan Today, how many girls got the vaccine? 1,968 is a lot if it is 100 000 patients (2% side-effect rate), but if it is 1,000,000 patients (0.2% side-effect rate), or 10,000,000 (0.02% side effects) then it may well be viable and is safer than most over the counter medications.
Noliving
Which vaccine? Cervarix or Gardasil?
smithinjapan
Frungy: That's a 2% side-effect rate SO FAR. The whole point is that there has been no long-term study before administering it to so many young women, with ZERO proof the vaccine actually works. I had this argument with a guy just last night who's retort was that "the measles vaccine has side-effects, too". To this, of course, I pointed out that the measles vaccine has been more than proven effective.
There should have been a control group to start with -- people at high-risk who VOLUNTEER to take the vaccine and then be studied over time. You don't just launch a vaccine, say it works (and wink and say trust me) and make it mandatory for a certain number of women in a certain area.
So, Frungy, while you want to point out how low the stats are on the women who experience side-effects -- some of them very serious -- what we know for a fact is this: there are women suffering as a result of the vaccine while there is ZERO proof they would have or still will get cervical cancer in the future.
Magnus Roe
I get it that you have it in for this vaccine, but both Gardasil and Cervarix have been administered all over the world in some 100 million doses, including 9 million in Japan until Dec last year. 2000 odd cases of convulsions is pretty much in line with what the rest of the world experienced. Some thoughts on efficacy on the various vaccines are here, http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/HPV-vaccine http://web.archive.org/web/20080108050450/http://www.iavireport.org/Issues/Issue9-5/vaccines.asp http://web.archive.org/web/20070927173226/http://www.gsk.com/ControllerServlet?appId=4&pageId=402&newsid=847 I'd say it's fairly safe to say it's working. Besides, without this program, "volunteering" to take this vaccine will cost you 80 000 yen including lots of time off work for the three injections. You should find something else to whine about, like influenza vaccines and the general influenza hysteria in Japan.
David Elson
It's been widely administered in Australia without any problems since 2007 (unless Japan's come up with their own killer vaccine).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/17/cervical-cancer-vaccine-success-lancet
Noliving
I can say from getting all three shots of Gardasil and on schedule that I'm fine, I haven't suffered any side-effects. The only issue was that I had to pay over $350 to get the vaccine.