British Cervarix vaccinations to resume

British media are reporting that vaccinations with the human papilloma virus vaccine Cervarix will resume immediately after an autopsy showed that 14-year-old Natalie Morton died from a serious underlying medical condition and that the death had nothing to do with the vaccine. Morton collapsed shortly after the vaccination earlier this week and died within hours.

The coroner did not reveal what the underlying condition was, but noted that "it is an extremely rare health problem for a girl of Natalie's age to suffer."

Natalie's stepfather, Andrew Bullock, told authorities that she had been feeling sick for "some time" before the immunization and that the family now believed that the vaccine did not cause her death. She had not been hospitalized for the illness, but had been seeing doctors and was taking medications for it.

GlaxoSmithKline recalled the lot of the vaccine, which protects against the virus that causes cervical cancer, as a proactive measure to ensure that there was no problem with it. The ensuing shortage may delay the immunization program until new supplies of the vaccine can be obtained.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Comments

[Barbara Lock]

The death toll from cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papilloma virus following a very small proportion of infections, is about 4,000 women per year in the United States. I am relieved to hear that the cause of this young girl's death has been definitively pegged on an underlying medical condition and not the vaccine. 27 confirmed deaths have been associated with the HPV vaccine in the US through June 2009, although none have been causally associated.

A review of the risks and benefits of the vaccine: http://www.medpie.com/top-health-stories/featured-articles/hpv-edu.html