Cervical Cancer Vaccines: Tell Us the Truth

CAP is totally aghast with the relevant authorities, particularly with the Ministry of Health, for its absolute silence over the raging controversies on the rush to get our young girls vaccinated against cervical cancer.

In the first place, there are many areas of concern over the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine which is said to prevent infection against certain species of human papillomavirus associated with cervical cancer, genital warts and some less common cancers.

Many countries around the world are going slow on this vaccine because of many doubts raised.

However, Malaysia is rushing into it. HPV vaccines, given in a series of three shots, are to make the body’s immune system produce antibodies against HPV types 16 and 18, which cause 7 out of 10 cases of cervical cancer. The antibodies supposedly protect one from getting infected with HPV.

And yet the authorities are not giving the people any details. Even the type of vaccine used seems to be top secret!

Two HPV vaccines are currently in the market: Gardasil and Cervarix. Which one is Malaysia using? And experts tell us that the regular Pap smear screening must be continued to be done even after vaccination because the vaccine only covers some high-risk types of HPV.

The World Health Organisation also warned late last year that those vaccinated and do not continue with screening, such as Pap smear because they wrongly believe they are fully protected against cervical cancer, can raise the death figures, especially with the vaccine protection waning over time.

Will the Health Ministry continuously educate and inform the girls that they should be going for screening continuously?

Then we have the huge advertising push to get Malaysian girls aged 13 and above to get themselves vaccinated, free of charge.

Millions of ringgit must have already been spent on the full-page colour advertisements in all the newspapers, besides on radio and television.

The people want to know who’s paying for this: Taxpayers or the pharmaceutical companies that seem to have a hold on the Malaysian authorities and which stand to make billions of ringgit in profit.

Why are the authorities deafeningly silent on these matters? Especially so when it is a common fact that problems such as HPV spread among those who over-indulge in sex.

Are the authorities telling us that teenage Malaysian girls are oversexed?

For their information, here are some concerns raised by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

•  As of Sept 1, 2009, there were 15,037 Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) cases of adverse events following Gardasil vaccination in the United States. Of these reports, 93% were reports of events considered to be non-serious, and 7% were reports of events considered to be serious.

•  Reports on non-serious adverse events after Gardasil vaccination have included fainting, pain and swelling at the injection site (the arm), headache, nausea and fever.

•  VAERS defines serious adverse events as those that involve hospitalisation, permanent disability, life-threatening illnesses and death.

•  As of September 1, 2009, there have been 44 reports of death among females in the US who have received the vaccine.

CAP calls on the authorities to stop the vaccine programme immediately, until the people are clear about it.

The Ministry of Health never even bothered to respond to fears and queries raised by parents recently in Letters to the Editors in a number of newspapers.

Again, why the deafening silence? Are the billions of ringgit to be earned too much of an attraction?

In September 2009, when the Government announced its intention to vaccinate some 300,000 13-year-old schoolgirls, we voiced our concern and objection at this preposterous proposal to vaccinate them against a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) commonly contracted by promiscuous adults.

We reiterate that inoculating schoolgirls with the vaccine is a symptomatic and simplistic solution to the problem of cervical cancer in children who may contract cervical cancer due to early sexual activity and promiscuity when instead, the root cause and main contributing factor for contracting HPV — sexual relations with multiple partners — should be tackled by education and instilling religious and moral values to avoid infection by STD.