A decision on two sisters´ claims for side effects to an HPC vaccine is not expected until early 2014 following a hearing at the US Federal Claims Court last week.
Madelyne Meylor (20) and Olivia Meylor (19) from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, both claim that they suffered side effects from the human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) vaccine that was administered to them when they were young teenagers.
Both sisters claim that the vaccine has caused their ovaries to stop producing eggs and resulted in premature menopause. The US Federal Claims Court was told that the sisters now suffer from insomnia, night sweats and headaches and are taking birth control pills as hormone replacement therapy.
Their compensation claims for side effects to an HPV vaccine were made through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and have caused an animated debate over the use of HPV vaccines.
Dr. Thomas Broker – founder of the International Papillomavirus Society – said that if two girls from the same family experience the same side effects from different batches of vaccine that were administered years apart, then the problem has to be genetic.
However, tests for three possible genetic causes of the side effects were negative for both sisters, and Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld – an Israeli specialist in autoimmune illnesses – testified at the hearing that adjuvants present in the HPV vaccine Gardasil could be responsible for the sisters´ condition.
Doses of HPV vaccines have been administered to both boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 12 on the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics to reduce the risk of genital and oral cancers, and millions of doses of Gardasil have been administered since the product was first approved for use in 2006.
Centers for Disease Control in the US have recorded 22,000 instances of side effects to the vaccine in the past seven years, with 8 percent of these being regarded as “serious”. The product was withdrawn from use in Japan in June 2013 after a high number of side effects were recorded, and there has been criticism at home about how the vaccine is marketed.
Two fatalities have been linked with HPV vaccines, and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has already awarded $5.9 million in settlement of claims for side effects to an HPV vaccine in sixty-eight successful cases.
A decision on the Meylors´ claims for side effects to an HPV vaccine is not expected until the New Year.