Cancer jab scare after girl dies
Updated on 29 September 2009
Health officials are struggling to reassure parents about the cervical cancer vaccination scheme following the death of a girl who had just received a vaccination. Julian Rush reports.
Some health authorities and schools have already suspended the scheme, including Coventry, where 14-year-old Natalie Morton died.
A post mortem will decide whether her death had anything to do with the jab.
Teenager Natalie Morton died yesterday in hospital shortly after receiving the HPV1 Cervarix jab at the Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry.
She apparently suffered a "rare but extreme reaction" after being given the injection, with a number of other girls also suffering dizziness and nausea and being sent home.
Health bosses in Coventry have launched an immediate investigation into her death, also quarantining the batch of Cervarix allocated to the school as a "precautionary measure".
The HPV vaccine protects against two strains of human papillomavirus that cause more than 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer in women.
The NHS started the immunisation programme in September last year, offering vaccines to girls aged 12 and 13 and to 17 and 18-year-old girls.
A catch-up programme was also announced at the time with 13 to 18-year-old girls offered the vaccine over the following two academic years.
In December, the programme was extended so that all girls born on or after 1 September 1990 could be protected before the end of the academic year 2009/10. Vaccination is not compulsory and consent is required before it is administered to the under-16s.
According to the NHS, Cervarix, the HPV vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline which was selected for the national immunisation programme, underwent "rigorous safety testing" as part of the licensing process.
Dr Pim Kon, medical director at GlaxoSmithKline UK, said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the young girl.
"We are working with the Department of Health and MHRA to better understand this case, as at this stage the exact cause of this tragic death is unknown.
"As a precautionary measure, the batch of vaccine involved has been quarantined until the situation is fully understood."
