Sunday, September 27, 2009

Gardasil: Safe or Not?



Gardisil, the relatively new vaccine approved by the FDA in 2006, used in preventing genital warts and cervical cancer, is recommended for girls and women between the ages of 13 and 26 years old. There are three shots given in the series, and if one shot is missed, the vaccine will prove ineffective. A common misconception regarding this vaccine is that it is not used to treat HPV if a person has already contracted it. Personally, my doctor's office was really pushing for all high school senior girls to get the vaccine before we went off to college, even back in 2006, when it first came out. It has been causing controversy with health specialists, mainly because the side effects and long term effects are not clearly known at this time.

According to the Wasthington Times, as of July 2008, it has been reported that there have been over 8,000 health problems as a result of the vaccine ranging from "fainting, numbness, seizures, and paralysis." This doesn't even include the number of acute side effects that weren't even reported. Apparently, a 13 year old girl got the third shot and ended up paralyzed in 2007. On the flip side of the argument, however, over 16 million doses of the vaccine have been given.

*Do you think it is worth risking the side effects for such a new vaccine, or would you wait a couple of years and then see what the FDA is saying about it?*

For more general information on the vaccine, as well as the warnings go to:
http://www.drugs.com/gardasil.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/10/merck-fda-expand-gardasil-warnings/

1 comment:

  1. This is a good article and you bring up a lot of valid points. A lot of doctors offices are pushing teenaged girls to get this vaccine. I want to know that if this vaccine went through FDA trialing and became approved how come they are having so many problems with it? I think that i would wait a few years to find out the long term affects of the vaccine.

    ReplyDelete