hpv vaccine adverse reactions

Walking on the Edge of a Sword: Cervarix Injury in Japan

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This is the story of my teenage daughter who, beginning in 2010, received a series of vaccinations that culminated with the three shot HPV vaccine, Cervarix (Gardasil in the US). Although she had some health issues as an infant and child, she was thriving and doing well prior to the vaccine. After the Cervarix vaccine series this all changed.

Sharne was born in 1998. Her health issues pre-vaccine included: pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), a form of Aspergers, infantile asthma, atopic dermatitis, pyelitis, otitis media, Candida, hemolytic streptococcus, pneumonia, wart, FMF (periodic fever syndrome), agrochemical sensitivity and repeated stomatitis. Her immunization history was as follows:

  • 15 May 2010 DT BIKEN (Lot. No. 2E007 2011.6.8, 0.1ml) left arm
  • 19 March 2011 Japanese encephalitis BIKEN (JR059 2012.5.18, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 25 June 2011 Measles and Rubella Takeda (Lot. No. Y116 2012.2.24, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 27 July 2011 HPV  Cervarix  1st shot (Lot. No. AHPVA129CA, 0.5ml) left arm
  • 17 October 2011  Cervarix  2nd shot (Lot. No. AHPVA143AA, 0.5ml) right arm
  • 26 March 2012  Cervarix  3rd shot (Lot. No. AHPVA161BA 0.5ml) left arm

Before the Cervarix Vaccine

Sharne was born October 02, 1998. Prior to Cervarix vaccine, she enjoyed her school life. She liked to be in the school rather than being home, including going to an evening school for extra study.  As she wanted to gain accreditation to a high school, she tried to go to school even when she had a fever of 40 degree centigrade because in order to get the accreditation she was allowed to be absent from school only up to 5 days

Prior to the HPV vaccine, Sharne did not need to sleep for a long time, and she woke up early even when she went to bed late the day before. Before the symptoms occurred, she used to wake up at five o’clock in the morning. She’d read her favorite books, and then went to run around the house for about 10 minutes.

She was an athlete and was the fastest 1000 meter runner in her class when she was in 7th grade. She had strong lungs, and her respiration rate and pulse rate had been low since she was a little girl, but it is now is much higher. Her pulse is averages 70-80 beats per minute; average for some, but several points higher for her.

She used to prepare breakfast by herself, do homework and go to school. She was really independent, managed her own schedule, found whatever she wanted to do, and when she needed to be taken to or picked up she just told me the time to be taken to or picked up.  She never conflicted with others, avoided any dispute, and was a very quiet, gentle and good natured child.

After the Cervarix Vaccine

Now she cannot do what she could do previously. She has difficulties remembering things. She cannot remember what she has done. She cannot manage her own things, stationary, notebooks, glasses.  She used to look after her things very carefully, and never asked where they were. She’d never forgotten what she needed to take to school, but now she leaves her glasses on the floor of her bedroom or in a washing bowl even for two weeks. She cries when she cannot find her notebook, and she cannot remember what she did in the past.

Her IQ and test scores have dropped a lot and continue to drop.

She says impolite things to teachers or family members and becomes violent like an insane person. She hates most of people around her.

Recently, she cannot understand what she is going to do or where she is. In addition, she has muscle weakness in legs, and cannot raise her left foot. Her grip strength dropped from about 30 kgf to 5 or 6 kgf.

The Progression of Symptoms Post – HPV Vaccine

Looking back now, it seemed to have started after the first Cervarix shot, but it gradually worsened for about two weeks after the third shot, and half a year later she could not get up at all. Symptoms:

  • After 1st shot: asthma attack (the first time for seven years).
  • After 2nd shot: malaise, long-lasting urticaria, repeated nosebleed
  • After 3rd shot: in MRI, extension of T2, cerebral blood flow decrease, atrial rhythm, arrhythmia, increase of eosinophil, IgE, IgD, and complement titer, abnormal malaise, chronic slight fever, clouding of consciousness, hypersomnia, brain function deterioration such as memory, comprehension, calculation, and execution functions, personality change, irritability, aggression, depression, childishness, behaving like a baby, hyperpnea, respiratory distress, muscle weakness, back pain, headache, parotitis, temporomandibular arthritis, dysphagia, stomatitis, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, back pain, muscle pain, abnormal vision, photophobia, double vision, reduced vision, etc.

Timeline of Symptoms Post Cervarix Shots

2012

April: about 2 weeks after the third shot (March 26), exertional hyperpnoea and muscle weakness occurred.

May or June: started experiencing malaise, gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, headache, chest pain, and anginal symptoms during nocturnal rest. There was muscle weakness when getting off from her bicycle in the school and could not stand up.

September: could not get up, altered state of consciousness lasted for a long time, there were anginal symptoms, atrial rhythm, arrhythmia, blood flow decrease, extension of T2 in MRI, and leukoaraiosis.

October to December: treated with steroid. Although malaise had dramatically improved, brain blood flow did not improve, accumulation was observed in the hippocampus, and the treatment was stopped.

 2013

January: malaise worsened seriously. There were depression, suicidal thought, and personality change (irritability, excitability, persecutory delusion).  Even in school she cried loudly like a one-year old baby and dashed out from the classroom.

June: we noticed the association with the vaccine when watching a TV news about suspension of recommendation of HPV vaccine.  Around this time, she became violent at night. Cried loudly like roaring. Sharne threw her younger brother by the full force. (This violence disappeared soon after IVIG.)

August: we saw Dr. Sasaki, and he proposed three treatments, that included, steroid pulse, IVIG, and an immunosuppressive agent.

September: immunoglobulin (due to fever, discontinued on the 3rd day, she became cheerful on the 2nd day, and the sensation of toes returned. Malaise also improved a little.  Blood flow increased, and the best results for SPECT so far), but involuntary movement gradually intensified.

2014

February: steroid pulse (after about 2 weeks, headache and back ache, etc. decreased, cognitive function and facial expression a improved slightly, the time of sleep during day decreased, but after about 20 days new systemic joint pain and excruciating pain started, and malaise, gastrointestinal symptoms, etc. also restarted.)

Her sensitivity to glare and the double vision disappeared.  Involuntary movement started to appear.

March: 2nd cycle of steroid pulse (this time, there were no effects on mental strength and malaise, and there was a symptom like muscle weakness, which had appeared with the altered state of consciousness in the autumn 2012), involuntary movement and muscle weakness seemed to increase, and IgG decreased.

May: she was depressed. She received immunoadsorption therapy, involuntary movement decreased, but spasm and tremor have started. Mental motivation improved, and gentle character has returned. Malaise has alleviated, and daily life became almost normal.

June: malaise returned in one week after discharge from the hospital, and IgG decreased.

July: motivation dropped. Mental symptoms have started.

Lab Tests and Other Diagnostic Results

  • Cerebrospinal fluid test results: autumn 2013: contaminated with blood, but IgG was as high as 5.8 (this is not influenced by serum contamination)
  • February 2014: cell count 12, CD4 64.9, CD8 31.4, cytotoxic T cell, granzyme B 1.3
  • Diagnosed as a possibility of subacute encephalitis.
  • April 2014: abnormal values for various types of interleukins, etc.
  • June 2014: antiganglioside antibody positive

The Lesson I Learned too late

‘We need question even what the government is doing.’ This is what I learned with this huge and irreparable mistake. I tell our story because I do not want to other parents to make the same mistake and because we need help understanding the post-vaccine reactions, so that our children, already injured by the Cervarix vaccine can recover.

Vaccination of boys has already started in some countries, and clinical trials have begun in Japan. In order to protect the future of children, please think and research before you vaccinate. I will let my voice be heard in order for many people to receive information about the dangers of the HPV vaccine.

Cervarix Adverse Effects in Japan

There are more than 2000 reports about adverse effects in Japan, but some doctors refuse to report. There have been more than 1000 contacts to the network of HPVW injured people in Japan, the number of people registered exceeds 255, but still there are only a few medical institutions that care for injured.  The government should support and subsidize medical institutions that exert themselves for elucidation of the mechanisms of the cause and establishment of the way to treat underlying causes.

Postscript: This article was written originally in Japanese and translated to English by a friend of Hormones Matter.

Participate in Research

Hormones MatterTM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with Gardasil and its counterpart Cervarix. If you or your daughter has had either HPV vaccine, please take this important survey. The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

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Rolling the Dice with the HPV Vaccine

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If you are the parent of a minor child, you most likely have heard about one or both of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines currently on the market. A trip to the pediatrician’s office with a teen or pre-teen is typically where the first discussion takes place. The doctor will dutifully recite information. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. As a parent, that gets your attention. They go on to further state that the vaccine will protect your child from the strains of the virus that most commonly cause cervical cancer in females and genital warts in males. These are both very uncomfortable subjects for most of us. However, as parents, we want to protect our children at all costs from anything and everything possible.

As with any vaccine, the parent is provided a pamphlet or sheet containing the standard information: what is HPV, why get vaccinated, who should get vaccinated, and the obligatory safety information. After reading the information and listening to the doctor’s recommendation explaining that the vaccine is very safe (and it seems to be for most patients), many parents make the decision to have their child protected. I was one of them. I rolled the dice and sadly, my daughter lost.

The information pamphlet states that the vaccine has been used in the United States for about six years and has been very safe. You are warned about pain and swelling of the injection site, fever, headache, and the most troublesome side effect, fainting. The patient is required to remain in the doctor’s office for a period of time after the injection as a safety precaution.

What the information pamphlet does not address is that over 29,300 injuries and 136 deaths have been reported following HPV vaccines. Vaccine injury reporting is voluntary in our country and the Center for Disease Control acknowledges that adverse events, as they are called, may be 10 to 100 times greater than those actually reported. Do the math.  The reported numbers seem very significant to me, but I am the mother of one of the injured. I trust we can all agree that the actual numbers could be staggering.

The list of new medical conditions being reported following the HPV vaccine is also staggering, I counted 144 conditions. My daughter has 31 of them. She suffers mainly from neurological, autoimmune, and adrenal issues. The worst offender is a migraine-like headache that has been present every day, all day and night for more than a year. The neurologist refers to it as migraine-like because all the symptoms are there yet it does not respond to any medication. Her immune system has also been compromised. She suffers from leaky gut syndrome and now has sensitivity to 20 common foods. Dealing with this for more than a year now has taken a toll on her 16-year-old body. Chronic pain has lead to depression and adrenal fatigue. All of this in a girl who had what was described as an “unremarkable’ medical history prior to vaccination.

While my daughter’s symptoms are grave, she really is one of the lucky ones.  Many of the injured suffer from daily seizures or even multiple seizures per day.  My daughter does not. For that, I am thankful every day. Having a child in crisis is hard. Having a child with a medical crisis that medical doctors do not know how to reverse is even more difficult. My decision to protect her, in fact, caused her great harm.

Choosing to give your child a vaccination is a personal decision, but it is one that should not be taken lightly. Do your own research, do not simply rely on the information pamphlet, it is, after all, written by the vaccine manufacturer. I learned this lesson the hard way.  When you decide if you will roll the dice, please, for the sake of your child, remember this:  Education conquers fear and knowledge is power.

Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Research

Hormones MatterTM is conducting a large scale assessment of symptoms and adverse reactions associated with the HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. If you, your daughter, other family member or friend have had either of these vaccines, we encourage you to take this important survey. The data collected with help delineate the range, severity, frequency and onset of health symptoms associated with Gardasil and/or Cervarix. For more information or to take the survey: The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.