Health complaints from Marseille, Toulon and all over France put Gardasil vaccine under scrutiny
Monaco’s government is pushing ahead with its recommendation that young women receive the HPV vaccine, despite a France-wide controversy over its potential side effects. The drug’s manufacturer has denied any link between its anti-cervical cancer vaccine and health problems, which include multiple sclerosis.
Reports are surfacing that a number of girls throughout the country are complaining of serious side effects following their inoculation of the Gardasil vaccine. One French teenager has now filed a lawsuit against French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur and France’s health regulators, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
Three other women have announced that they will lodge a complaint against Sanofi Pasteur within the next two weeks.
“the fact that an illness appears after a vaccine is administered does not mean that the vaccine caused this illness”
Gardasil is made by Merck and sold throughout Europe by Sanofi. It was made available in France in 2006 and protects against the human papilloma virus (HPV) – a sexually transmitted disease and the primary cause of cervical cancer. The vaccine has been recommended by the French Health Ministry since 2007.
The vaccine’s reported side effects vary from damage to the central nervous system to skin conditions. 18-year-old French teenager Marie-Oceane Bourguignon, from the Landes region south of Bordeaux, was 15 when she received two injections of Gardasil. Within months she was hospitalised for multiple sclerosis, said her lawyer, Jean-Christophe Coubris.
Sanofi is dismissing her case as a coincidence and is denying any link with MS. “As the scientific literature underlines, the fact that an illness appears after a vaccine is administered does not mean that the vaccine caused this illness,” it said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Daniel Floret, the chair of the national committee that oversees vaccinations, also says that there is no evidence linking Gardasil with serious auto-immune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, adding that the vaccine’s credibility could be damaged by the controversy.
“I read about potential side effects before receiving the vaccine but the threat of an STD leading to cervical cancer weighed more heavily in my considerations.”
But Monaco’s government is still recommending young women receive the vaccine. It issued a statement on Tuesday 26th November saying, “More than ever, the Princely Government, as well as all international sanitary authorities, recommends young women protect themselves against cervical cancer by getting vaccinated against human papilloma virus.”
Natalie, a 22-year-old law student who was vaccinated last December in Denmark, told The Riviera Times that she has no regrets about receiving the drug, despite suffering health problems she suspects were caused by the vaccine. “About a month after I got the last shot, I was chronically dizzy and nauseous for days at a time. It finally disappeared after about five months,” she said.
“I read about potential side effects before receiving the vaccine but the threat of an STD leading to cervical cancer weighed more heavily in my considerations.”
About 3,000 women will suffer from cervical cancer in France every year.