Christina England
So, What Do You Know About Cervarix?
March 21, 2009
 

In September we saw the launch of the HPV Vaccine 'Cervarix 'here in Britain and many of our young girls here, have either had the vaccine or are about to have the vaccine very soon. I decided to go into my local area and to investigate just how much, or how little, we really know about HPV, the Vaccine and also cervical cancer and how much of an impact the Jade Goody story is having in my own part of the world. What I have discovered is quite surprising and frankly quite worrying despite the extensive advertising campaign by Glaxo Smith Kline the manufacturer, the British Media and our Government.

All over the world the tragic story of Jade Goody is hitting the headlines. Jade first made her television debut in 2002 on 'Big Brother', a British reality television show. She did not win but made quite an impact nevertheless. Jade is the type of girl you either love or hate but whether you love her or hate her, right now you have to feel for her and her family because over the last couple of months Jade has been diagnosed as terminally ill, after slowly losing her battle with Cervical Cancer. On Sunday the 22nd February 2009 she married Jack Tweed the man she of her dreams. Sadly it was not the fairytale wedding Jade would have wished for as Jade was very ill but despite this she put on a brave face and managed to look beautiful.

Jade lives a very public life and she has decided to die a very public death. She also feels she wants to have her final weeks filmed and to have every moment of her painful and moving story on television in a bid to heighten awareness of cervical cancer. She has even chosen publically to back her local Stockport HPV vaccination scheme.. Stockport is currently offering free beauty treatments to youngsters in a bid to boost the take-up of the HPV vaccine 'Cervarix'.

The Stockport Express interviewed Dr David Baxter who had this to say:

"The vaccination can prevent around 70 percent of the viruses that cause cervical cancer. I don´t know the details of Jade Goody´s case but it is possible that if she had received the vaccine it could have prevented her cancer.

"We have tried writing to girls who are missing out on the vaccine but it doesn´t seem to work. We have also tried texting and ringing but we still can´t reach everyone, so we have been talking to a college in Stockport to see if their beauty therapists would be interested in giving manicures and pedicures to girls who receive the vaccination."

"We need to think of other initiatives to get them to come in."

Jade feels this is very important and the work is vital to save others.

"I am really encouraged and happy to hear about the initiative in Stockport, Anything that shows girls are getting the message about advanced screening and the HPV vaccination is definitely a good thing."

Whilst I applaud Stockport for this initiative, I feel that before Dr Baxter made his comment referring to Jade, he should have checked Jades case in full. There is no certainty that HPV is the cause of her Cervical Cancer and if it is, which strain she has. If she does not have HPV, or if it is another strain of HPV besides the strains 16 and 18 then it is not possible for a HPV vaccine to have made a difference to Jade contracting Cervical Cancer.

Texting, phoning and writing to young girls who have not received the HPV vaccine, is using bully boy tactics and putting immense pressure on them to have a vaccine that they may not want or indeed know very little about This I feel amounts to harassment and could be seen to be in breach of their human rights to privacy. This behavior is intimidating and potentially dangerous, as some children and young women may become very frightened. To all intensive purposes this could be seen to be 'stalking behavior' and then, to bribe them into conforming, mirrors the tactics used in the USA TeenScreen initiatives. In the USA, offers of free cinema tickets and treats to fill in questionnaires for mental illness are made , this it turn can lead to children as young as 9 being prescribed unnecessary psychiatric drugs. Surely the parents of these children have a say in all this. Do they know their children are being bullied into having a vaccine by the doctors they trust?

This also leads me to worry about whether or not these tactics are being used as a possible cover up to push a vaccine which is proving to have many often serious side effects.

I gave out questionnaires in my local college, asking young girls if they would be willing to fill in a questionnaire on cervical cancer and then to return to me. I wanted to investigate just how much young girls really know about cervical cancer, the vaccine and if they were aware of the vaccines possible adverse reactions.

I used statistics to work out what young girls locally really knew. My sample group ranged between the ages of 18- 36. Unfortunately 25% of my questionnaires were unreturned.

Sadly 62.5% had very limited or only basic knowledge of cervical cancer and even more worrying 37.5% had no knowledge at all.

A staggering 100% felt that they were not affected by the Jade Goody story although 25% felt her story was very sad.

Sadly 75% did feel that Jades story had brought the realism of cervical cancer out into the open, with 12.5% said no they felt it had not and a further 12.5% felt that it had brought the issue of cervical cancer to the media’s attentions which would heighten awareness.

Surprisingly despite the extensive advertising 87.5% knew nothing about the HPV vaccine with 12.5% having some limited knowledge.

Despite knowing so little about the vaccine 50% said however they were considering having the HPV vaccine whilst 37.5% were unsure leaving 12.5% saying no they were not considering having the vaccine.

I was surprised that given the seemingly little knowledge my sample had regarding the HPV vaccine that 75% felt that yes, young women should be encouraged to have the vaccine, 12.5% said no that young women should not be encouraged to have the vaccine and 12.5% were not sure.

Incentives were a good idea to encourage young women to have the vaccine said 37.5% and a 37.5% said no they felt it was not a good idea, with 25% saying possibly

A very worrying 100% said no they have not heard of an possible adverse reactions.

Once alerted to the possible side effects prompted by my previous question 62.5% said yes the possibility of an adverse reaction does worry them and 25% said, no it did not worry them and 12.5% said they were not.

Of course I am no Scientist but it has given me a wider insight into what local young women really know and quite frankly I am appalled and very worried at what I have uncovered. Sadly my sample was small and I know that I have to take into account the many variables when carrying out a survey of any substance, so my results were of course in themselves limiting. However, for me, my hypothesis was proven, to some extent at least. Young women do not know very much about HPV or cervical cancer or indeed the vaccine.

In the UK, Cervarix, is the HPV vaccine that is used in preference to Gardasil which is used overseas and has now been in use for six months. Slowly similar to Gardasil the reports of adverse reactions begin to mount. Instead of VAERS, or Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System which is the main reporting system used in the USA, they also use a reporting system called WAVE or World Association for Vaccine Education. In the UK, we use the Yellow Card reporting system to log adverse reactions caused by drugs and vaccines.

Here is a summary of suspected adverse reactions that are believed to be caused by Cervarix as of 5th March 2009 from the Government MHRA website

Total number of reports received: 1,340
Total number of suspected reactions: 2,891
Estimated number of doses administered: at least 700,000 doses

You can follow these adverse reactions yourself by using the search engine 'Google' and typing in 'MHRA Cervarix' regularly and seeing the latest figures.

On the 16th March 2009 In the Daily Telegraph another story of a serious adverse reaction from this vaccine is reported with a mother reporting her child to be very ill since having this vaccine. Bryony Gordon reports that there have now been 1500 adverse reactions reported to date.

Also sadly another British child Ashleigh Cave just 12, remains desperately ill in Liverpool after the Cervarix vaccine. Her doctor said it was not the vaccine however a second opinion is stating now it was. She has been unable to stand or walk since her first Cervarix vaccine which was administered on the15th October 2008. She became ill within 30 minutes of having the vaccine. On 25th October she was admitted into hospital where she has remained ever since. She is very seriously ill with a UTI at present and her kidneys are now damaged. She has suffered one infection after another. In January 2009, she became very sick with a serious chest infection. She was even coughing up blood. She now has heart problems.

This young lady had dreams of becoming a doctor, she even had chosen a university and which gap year to take. She loves horse riding and chilling out with friends, shopping and talking about boys.

Her mother told me last night that she feels the NHS has completely failed her child. She feels our Government has failed her child. She feels no one cares.

Newspapers went into the hospital a few days ago to write a further article on this case, however, Cheryl Cave, Ashleigh's mother was informed that no photographs were allowed to be taken on the ward. Cheryl took Ashleigh into the hospital grounds in a wheelchair with her IV still in place to carry on with photographs and was then approached by security who said no photographs were allowed anywhere on the premises.

If the hospital had nothing to hide, then why remove newspaper reporters and photographers?

What Do the Experts Say About Cervarix'?
On the Glaxo Smith Klien website, they have this to say about Cerarvix

They begin with the title:

'A new era in cervical cancer prevention'

Then they proceed to present us with various facts:

▪ Every 2 minutes somewhere in the world a woman dies of cervical cancer

▪ Cervical cancer does not just affect older woman – it is the 2nd most common cancer in women under 45

▪ You don't have to be older to get cervical cancer. Every woman is at risk.

▪ Cervical cancer is not hereditary. The main cause is a virus called HPV

▪ Up to 80% of woman will be infected an HPV infection at some point in their lives.

▪ An apple a day won't keep cervical cancer away but regular screening can

▪ Screening is important but it does not detect all pre-cancerous lesions or cancer.
Vaccination along with regular screening is offering women the best possible protection.

However, on n the website Vaccine Awareness they wrote this about the Cervarix Vaccine :

About Cervarix

"More than 1 in 10 doses may cause pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, headache, aching muscles and muscle weakness, and tiredness.

More than 1 in 100 doses may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, itching, red skin rash, hives, joint pain and high fever.

More than 1 in 1000 doses may cause upper respiratory tract infection, dizziness, a hard lump at the injection site, tingling or numbness.

If the side-effects get serious or you have an affect not mentioned in this leaflet, tell your doctor.

According to a GlaxoSmithKline UK electronic medicines compendium document dated 24 September 2007, subjects in the trial of this product were only monitored for side-effects for 30 days and any occurring after this time were not included in the study.

This vaccine has not been studied to see if it is safe to have during or immediately before pregnancy. It is not known whether the vaccine is excreted in human milk and there have been no studies on its interaction with other drugs (they don't know whether it is safe to have alongside other medicines).

Cervarix is for use against two types of Human Papillomavirus, thought to cause 70% of sexually transmitted cervical cancers. It will NOT protect you against all types of HPV. Duration of 'protection' after vaccination is unknown, but thought to be 5.5 years. So if a 12 year old is vaccinated, it may have worn off by the time she's 17. The need for booster doses has not been studied"

If we are to believe what is written on the Vaccine Awareness website, then it seems that Glaxo Smith Kline are up to their usual tricks of poor research and keeping crucial facts from the public. They are, after all experts at hiding the truth, as their shoddy behavior in the Seroxat scandal has taught us in the past. The website 'Seroxat Secrets' has the full story which will shock even the most stalwart supporter.

All of this is very confusing and I have to wonder how many young women currently being targeted with the incentives are told any of the above? Also how many mothers have been informed of the full facts? After all mothers do not see inside the products box and will therefore remain unaware that this vaccine has any side effects at all. On the Glaxo Smith Kline website I found no obvious mention of any side effects on their main page.

The Politics & PR of Cervical Cancer
So, then is it right to use Jade Goody in her fragile state to campaign for the use of this vaccine and has she been told all of the facts about Cervarix? Has she been told instead, that if this vaccine had been on offer when she was at school, she may not be facing death today and her two lovely boys may not have been robbed prematurely of their mother? If so, this may be seen as exploitation of her situation?

Are we the public being lied to? I have found that contrary to belief HPV is NOT always passed on through sexual intercourse and many of us could already have the virus before we have vaccination.