Gardasil Vaccine Controversy
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Updated: 6:24 PM Jul 8, 2008
Gardasil Vaccine Controversy
23 News sits down with a local nurse practitioner who advises her patients to get the Gardasil vaccine.
Posted: 6:10 PM Jul 8, 2008
Reporter: Natalie Kaplan
Email Address: Natalie.Kaplan@wifr.com
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For the past two years many doctor's here in the stateline have been urging girls to get the Gardasil vaccine. It's a series of three shots that prevent against sexually transmitted diseases that cause cervical cancer but now there's an alarming report out that shows thousands are blaming the vaccine for serious side effects.

23 News Reporter Natalie Kaplan spoke with a local nurse about whether getting the vaccine is worth the risk.

More than 8,000 that's how many girls so far have reported serious side effects after getting the vaccine. Illnesses range from wart outbreaks, seizures, paralysis, even death but when Natalie sat down with Jane Kiley, a nurse practitioner at SwedishAmerican Hospital she told her they haven't gotten any complaints about the vaccine and are very pro Gardasil at the clinic.

"The good news study that we aren't talking about is we're having many fewer abnormal pap tests just within the last couple of years so we're always always having to balance benefit and risk."

Kiley told Natalie, in this case, the benefit out weights the risk and she will continue to advise her patients to get the series of shots.

The maker of the drug Merck and the CDC also say Gardasil is safe and effective and they have not found a link to any deaths. They also say Gardasil appears safer than most vaccines, since less people report side effects then with others.

Still, some parents with sick children aren't buying it. One dad started a website for girls to write in about their illnesses hoping more people will come forward:
http://jenjensfamily.blogspot.com/


Latest Comments

Posted by: Tim on Jan 12, 2012 at 02:34 PM

The same day my daughter got the vaccine she got an allergic reaction and the doctor realized that it was the vaccine.Iam not against vaccines...just this one.If it wasnt for people like us the government would inject us with anything. So be a little more open minded unless it happens to your kid and she cannot go out of the house and has to be homeschooled.Forgive me if i sound a little bitter.I dont know who to blame this problem on because the government says it is safe.
Posted by: Tim Location: Phenix City on Jan 12, 2012 at 02:24 PM

My daughter got the vaccine two years ago.She went from a superstar softball player to a very sick child.She is severly allergic to almost everything and cannot go anywhere.This shot is dangerous!
Posted by: Concerned Location: NJ on Jan 20, 2009 at 01:36 AM

I have had two of the shots. With the second one I had an adverse effect that cause a scarring of the skin where the injection site and a muscle eating disease that continues to get deeper and wider. I am the second women in my county to have this adverse effect so I'm sure there are more people in the country with the same thing.