A two-year study of nearly 190,000 girls and women, finds that Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine made by Merck & Co, does not trigger autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The results are published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Study lead author Dr Chun Chao, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, California, said in a statement released on Friday, that:

“This kind of safety information may help parents with vaccination decisions.”

“”These findings offer some assurance that among a large and generalizable female population, no safety signal for autoimmune conditions was found following HPV4 vaccination in routine clinical use,” said Chao.

Gardasil is a “quadrivalent” vaccine because it helps protect against 4 types of HPV. In girls and young women age 9 to 26, it targets 2 types that cause about 75% of cervical cancers, and 2 other types that cause 90% of cases of genital warts.

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Source:
Medical News Today & Journal of Internal Medicine

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 (last updated)