UK NEWS EXCLUSIVE:
EXPERTS CAST DOUBT ON CLAIM FOR ‘WONDER’ CANCER JABS
By Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle
LEADING scientists and doctors have raised fresh concerns about the safety of a cervical cancer vaccine.
They have accused the manufacturers of Cervarix and another jab, Gardasil, of making misleading claims.
More than 1,300 British girls have reported adverse reactions to Cervarix, ranging from paralysis
to convulsions and sight problems.
Hailed as a wonder drug, it is claimed the jab will give 70 per cent protection from the disease to every girl under 18 by 2011.
Earlier this month the Sunday Express revealed the story of Rebecca Ramagge, 13, of Reigate, Surrey, who has been unable to walk for six months because of a joint disorder.
Rebecca’s pediatrician blames her condition on Cervarix.
In Germany, 13 distinguished professors have complained that the jab makers, Glaxo SmithKline and Sanofi, have been guilty of giving “incorrect” information.
Professor Martina Doren, of the Charitie Hospital in Berlin, said: “What concerns us is that the two manufacturers of the vaccine aren’t always using facts. They claim that a lot of high-risk strains of cancer-causing virus are protected against but equally there are others that are not.”
“If protection is not more than 20 per cent then that is an awful lot of money to be spending, particularly as the vaccines have quite serious side-effects.”
“Assertions that a vaccine reduces the risk of cervical cancer by 70 per cent or even 98 per cent should not be made at this point.”
Professor Doren criticised the fact that the only trials for the vaccines were carried out on women aged between 15 and 26 while the vaccine was being given to 12 and 13 year olds.
She said: “It is wrong to vaccinate these girls when it has not been tried on this age group. It is unethical.
“We are meant to be in an era where drugs and vaccines to be used on children are given trials on that age group first before awarding a licence. Otherwise you are experimenting on children, which is wrong.”
Last night a spokesman for the German national vaccines committee told the Sunday Express that a review of the evidence was under way.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands there has been mass resistance to the vaccine with only 49 per cent of girls turning up to have the first jab of the three- injection course.
Six Dutch girls were taken to hospital after being inoculated and there have been reports of more than 500 other adverse reactions.
Doctors there are calling on their national vaccines committee to reconsider its decision to back vaccination of schoolgirls. Many scientists claim the figure of 70 per cent protection against cervical cancer is not based on scientific evidence and has been used to convince parents that their girls ought to have the jab.
Experts in Scotland, where the Health Service has spent more than £64million vaccinating schoolgirls, are also expressing concerns.
Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: “Given this new research, it is incumbent on the Scottish government and the chief medical officer to review the vaccination programme to ensure that it lives up to the expectations of preventing cervical cancer.”
Last February 80,000 jabs in Valencia and the Balearic Islands were withdrawn after three girls ended up in hospital with convulsions and loss of consciousness within hours of being inoculated.
Spanish heath officials later concluded the vaccine had not caused the problems.
A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline said: “These vaccines provide young girls and women valuable new protection against cervical cancer and have been thoroughly tested by vaccine experts.
“The German health authorities have reiterated their positive assessment of these vaccines and continue to make them fully available.”
Grace Filby says
EXPERTS CAST DOUBT ON CLAIM FOR ‘WONDER’ CANCER JABS
31.05.09, 10:02am
The Government cannot just walk away pretending it is nothing to do with them. In May 2008 the Department of Health published a document called “Beating Cervical Cancer – The Facts” yet the facts and figures about safety adverse effects were plainly INCORRECT. I pointed this out officially through a FOI question on October 1 2008 and they apologised for the error! Did they remove the false information from the internet? No, not until 15 May 2009 when yet again I pointed it out to them. Did they ever recall the faulty booklets or send out a corrigendum to parents, childen, schools, PCTs, politicians, nurses and doctors who had already agreed to the Cervarix programme? I am still waiting for their reply to that question.
The fact is that the safety information circulated by the Department of Health was inaccurate and unclear, and they knew it. Everyone had been misled.
Here in Reigate we are fortunate to have an excellent paediatrician who has stated that the link between vaccines and arthralgia is well established. He made the clear connection with the Cervarix vaccine in Rebecca Ramagge’s official diagnosis. Luckily there are also local complementary therapists who have offered to help restore her to good health, e.g. with homeopathy. There are at least 2 other girls in Surrey who have been off school for weeks because of the Cervarix jab, and were trying to let the public know.
I, for one, would like to know how the Government and other politicians are going to make amends for letting these injuries happen.
May I add that there is an article in the BMJ, 2002, which states: “It would therefore be prudent to warn patients awaiting vaccination about the possible adverse effect on joint symptoms.” Jawad ASM.
• Posted by: Grace Filby
Freda says
EXPERTS CAST DOUBT ON CLAIM FOR ‘WONDER’ CANCER JABS
31.05.09, 5:51am
I believe that if a eminent Professor like Martina Doren of the Charitie Hospital in Berlin uses the phrase “particularly as the vaccines have quite serious side effects” then we hope that the general public will realise that this is fact and not fiction as our government and GlaxoSmithKline would have you believe. She also picks up on the point that no trials, yes ladies and gentlemen, no trials have been carried out on the age groups which are being vaccinated. Professor Doren considers this to not only be unethical but also to be “experimental”. Dr Diane Harper, another expert in this field, made exactly the same point to the people of Scotland last November and asked our government to wait another four years before starting on this programme of vaccination. The reason she did that because she couldnt guarantee that the vaccine was 100% safe. Who do you think knows more about Cervarix and Gardasil, the scientists who carry out the trials or the politicians and pharmaceutical companies whose only interest is in getting these vaccines marketed as quickly as possible. I know who I would rather trust and it most certainly is not the latter.
• Posted by: Freda
Annelies Witlam says
EXPERTS CAST DOUBT ON CLAIM FOR ‘WONDER’ CANCER JABS
31.05.09, 2:10am
it’s well known, worldwide, that both Gardasil and Cervarix are non-proven vaccines. As far as we know now, the damage is worse than the results we’ll knoe in approximately 15 or 20 years from now. I’m from Holland and I’d like to correct the numbers; the first round of vaccination was only 43%, the second even 18 % less. That’s why our gouverment is pissed off with us. However, we prove facts !!!
The Dutch gouverment stated that cervarix-cancer was the second cancer, after breast-cancer, killing woman. .
That’s a big, big lie, Cervarix-cancer is not even in the top 10 of cancers worldwide. However, the farma industry’s , will promote this lie in order to sell their dangerous , not proven vaccin.
Proven is: Cervical-cancer decreased after implenting pap-smears.
In Holland we know that our gouverment knows all the facts. Yet they’ll go on, next thing to happen is all the young boys will have to be vaccinated against HPV-virus.
FORGET IT, we’ll prevent this !!
There’s a lot of money involved, appently our health is not an issue what so ever.
• Posted by: Annelies