Watchdog says 28 died after getting Gardasil treatments last year
June 25th, 2009 joshua
A government corruption watchdog says at least 28 women and girls died last year soon after receiving treatments of the human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil.
Judicial Watch says it combed FDA Adverse Reaction reports and believes at least that many patients who got the popular and controversial HPV treatment - delivered in a series of three shots - died. These were among more than 6,700 reports of adverse reactions the FDA received last year linked to Gardasil.
Pain at the injection site and fainting are the most commonly reported side effects of Gardasil, a Merck drug. However, more serious reactions have been reported the more the product remains on the market. At least 47 girls and women have died soon after receiving Gardasil treatments since the vaccine was made available to the public in 1996.
In the last two years, Gardasil has been the focus of much controversy, but despite these reports, the FDA has continually approved it for use in a wider age group of women and girls, and has even contemplated its effectiveness for men. Some states have even tried to mandate that all young girls receive Gardasil as they would their first vaccination shots.
The FDA believes Merck has distributed more than 16 million doses of Gardasil since it’s been on the market.
Gardasil is a vaccine that is designed to prevent cervical cancer, a leading cause of death among women.
Merck is enjoying the buoyed profits, especially in the face of so many other lawsuits against the company for several of its other failed drugs, namely Vioxx, the pulled-from-market arthritis treatment which led to the untimely deaths of thousands of people across the globe.
The drug maker faces a class action lawsuit in Australia regarding Vioxx, and at that trial, has been exposed for its deceptive marketing and research practices - going so far as to create phony medical articles and journals to help promote the “safety” of its drugs despite mountains of evidence suggesting the drugs are dangerous.
Judicial Watch says that among the patients who die soon after their Gardasil treatments, many die within the first month. Other serious side effects of the vaccine include the development of warts and of miscarried pregnancies.
