By CBC News July 7, 2008 | 3:09 PM ET
Almost 8,000 U.S. recipients of the vaccine used to protect against cervical cancer have reported adverse reactions, ranging from pain at the injection site to serious side-effects, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of 7,802 people who received Gardasil, made by Merck and Co. Inc., have reported adverse events to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between June 8, 2006, and April 30, 2008. The United States distributed 2.2 million doses of the vaccine in 2006 and 11.3 million in 2007.
Of the people who reported adverse reactions, the most common side-effect was pain at the injection site, according to a recent CDC report.
Seven per cent had serious side-effects – “about half” the average of vaccines overall, according to the report. There were 31 reported cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a neurological condition that results in temporary but often total body paralysis, with 10 cases confirmed. Read the rest of this entry »
GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is unlikely to receive US approval for its key cervical cancer vaccine until 2010 at the earliest, under a new timetable it released yesterday.
