Personal Blog

HPV Vaccine - Adverse Reactions in Australia

Posted by K Krasnow Waterman on Tue, Jan 01, 2008 @ 12:01 PM

Gardasil causing seizure, numbness, "temporary paralysis" is being reported in Australia. Tom Grant has shared with me this information from a television news show in Australia (from the Seven network's Today Tonight show):

"More than 17 girls a week around Australia are experiencing adverse reactions, such as seizures and numbness after having the cervical cancer vaccine.  The Dept Of Health while revealing the number of reactions is refusing to release the exact details despite growing controversy overseas including links to at least 7 deaths!  There have been previous reports in Australia of young girls fainting and experiencing seizures, dizzy spells and paralysis including 20 students at a Melbourne private school who reported being sick after having the injection in late May."

From what I can see in the materials, the show seems to have included an interview with a 12 year-old girl who sent an email to the network describing suffering hallucinations and partial paralysis after receiving the shot.  In her email she describes that so many girls were sick after receiving the shot at her school that she was mostly ignored by school nurses and only taken seriously when she called her mother and her mother came and took her to a physician.  She is apparently recovered, though it's unclear whether she was treated when she went to her own doctor or if the symptoms abated on their own.  She also describes having seen a tv show that said other girls in Melbourne had also suffered a temporary paralysis after receiving the shot.

The show also interviewed the inventor, who is Australian. And, it noted that the number of reported reactions is low relative to the number of vaccines given. This appears to be the reason that both US and Australian health authorities have not taken any sort of action. At the time of various publicized reports, the rate of reporting was about 1 adverse reaction in 4,000 in Australia (496 out of 2million) and about 1 in 1,800 (1637 out of nearly 3 million) in the US.

My own research indicates that adverse reactions are generally believed to be underreported, although there is no agreement as to how much.  

Topics: gardasil paralysis