It seems that GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix is in the clear after a coroner concluded that the cervical cancer jab was unlikely to have played any part in the death of fourteen year-old Natalie Morton last week.
Last week Natalie died suddenly within hours of receiving the first shot of Cervarix at school in Coventry under England’s national immunisation programme of schoolgirls up to 18 years old, sparking fears over the safety of the vaccine.
But following a post mortem Dr Caron Grainger, Joint Director of Public Health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, confirmed that Natalie died from “a large malignant tumour of unknown origin in the heart and lungs” and that there is “no indication that the HPV vaccine…was a contributing factor to the death, which could have arisen at any point”.
Consequently, the city’s vaccination programme, which was put on hold during the investigation, will continue as planned from this week, Grainger said, adding that parents should be now be reassured regarding the safety of Cervarix, of which, according to GlaxoSmithKline, more than 1.4 million doses have already been administered safely in the UK alone.
Cervarix has been cleared for use in almost 100 countries worldwide but is still awaiting entry into the USA, where just last week regulators said they needed more time to review its marketing application, placing more ground between GSK’s jab and Merck & Co’s rival Gardasil, which was launched across the pond back in 2006.
