Free Republic

Cervical cancer has been virtually eradicated in young women because of the HPV vaccine's 'remarkable' success, a major study has found. Cases of the disease have plummeted by 87 per cent as a result of the NHS vaccine programme. Among women now in their twenties — the first generation to get the jab — cases have now dropped from about 50 per year to just five. Today's 'historic' findings by King's College London represent the first evidence the HPV vaccine is saving lives in the UK. The HPV vaccine prevents infection from human papillomavirus, a common group of viruses that...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed controversial legislation to greatly expand the rights of minors to obtain preventive treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent, including an HPV immunization for cervical cancer. Brown did not explain his reasoning in the announcement Sunday afternoon. Assembly Bill 499 was carried by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego. She said the legislation addresses a gap in the law that forbids prevention steps by doctors but allows minors under 18 to undergo abortions and post-infection treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without the approval of parents or a guardian. Critics counter the measure is an unwarranted...

Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15. “I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the...

A 14-year-old schoolgirl died hours after being given the controversial cervical cancer vaccine today. The teenager from Blue Coat Church of England School, in Coventry, died in hospital after receiving the Cervarix jab. The tragedy marks the first reported death since more than 1.5m doses of the injection were given to young girls as part of a national vaccination programme since last September in the UK. A number of her classmates have reported side effects to the vaccine. Critics say the case highlights the risks of mass vaccination, because no testing regime can ever pick up the rarest and potentially...

Two vaccines against cervical cancer are being widely used without sufficient evidence about whether they are worth their high cost or even whether they will effectively stop women from getting the disease, two articles in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine conclude. Both vaccines target the human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted virus that usually causes no symptoms and is cleared by the immune system, but which can in very rare cases become chronic and cause cervical cancer. The two vaccines, Gardasil by Merck Sharp & Dohme and Cervarix by GlaxoSmithKline, target two strains of the virus that together...

LONDON — Shares in GlaxoSmithKline PLC dipped Monday after Europe's largest drugmaker said that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has requested more information on its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix before it grants marketing approval. The company had said earlier that it expected to start selling the drug in the United States in 2008. It is expected to become a multibillion-dollar product. The company received a so-called complete response letter, which the U.S. regulator issues when the review of a marketing application file is completed and questions remain to be answered prior to approval. "We have already started addressing the...