(Sept. 28) - A 14-year-old British schoolgirl died Monday, shortly after receiving a cervical cancer vaccination. Local health authorities launched an "urgent" investigation but say a link between the death and the drug has not been established.
The teenager was administered Cervarix, a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), at her school in Conventry, England. She became sick soon after and was sent to a hospital where she died.
"No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place," said Dr Caron Grainger, the joint director of public health for NHS (National Health Service) Coventry. "We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy."
At least three other girls at the school who received the shot also reported mild symptoms, such as dizziness and nausea, but were not hospitalized.
The batch of Cervarix vaccine used at the school has been quarantined.
Cervarix, manufactured by UK-headquartered GlaxoSmithKline, has been used for the past year in Britain's national immunization program. It is estimated that about a million girls have already safely received the vaccine. It defends against two HPV strains which cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
In the United States, a panel of vaccine experts at the FDA voted overwhelmingly earlier this month that Cervarix appears safe and effective for girls and women ages 10 to 25. If the FDA follows the group's advice, as it usually does, Glaxo would begin competing against Merck's Gardasil, which has controlled the U.S. market since 2006.
