A fear campaign has dissuaded some parents from vaccinating their children with Gardasil, one of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, a Merck product on the market since 2006. Now a study of nearly 190,000 vaccinated girls and women published Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine has found that the only side effects were mild fainting and skin infections. (The fainting was likely to have been caused by the stress of getting a shot itself).
Dr. Nicola Klein of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center and her colleagues looked at the medical records of the vaccinated women to examine the risk of emergency department visits and hospital admissions that occurred within 60 days. Overall, researchers found there to be minimal risk for skin infections (a bit under 2 percent) and fainting (6 percent).
Yet another study has shown Gardasil has no serious incidence of side effects, Dr. Ross says. HPV is widespread, has been shown to lead to cancer in multiple organs and can also cause genital warts, so it s important for both young women and men to get vaccinated, he emphasizes.
