A schoolgirl who was given the cervical cancer jab has died, BBC News reports.

The 14-year-old girl received GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Cervarix vaccine as part of the NHS national immunisation programme.

The exact cause of death is unknown, but the girl was taken ill shortly after being given vaccine at Blue Coat CofE School in Coventry. She later died at Coventry University Hospital.

The immunisation programme started in September 2008 and targets girls aged 12 to 13. The jab protects women from the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), one of the main causes of cervical cancer. Older girls are also now being given the vaccine in a catch up programme.

The batch at the centre of the tragedy had been quarantined by the local healthcare trust, although as yet no definite link has been made between the vaccine and the girl’s death. Medical director of GSK UK, Dr Pim Con, said the company was working with the Department of Health and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to ascertain the causes of the girl’s death.

Joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, Dr Caron Grainger, told BBC News:

‘The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine in the school. No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.

‘We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy.’

Other girls at the school who received the vaccine reported mild symptoms of nausea and dizziness but were not treated at hospital, although some were sent home from school. The girl who died has not yet been named.

The school’s headteacher Dr Julie Roberts confirmed that one of the girls at the school suffered ‘a rare, but extreme reaction to the vaccine’ – and warned parents of pupils to be ‘extra vigilant’ after their daughters had been vaccinated.

Health experts estimate that around one million girls have been vaccinated against HPV to date. The NHS choice of Cervarix over the more widely used HPV vaccine Gardasil was questioned by some experts when the vaccination programme was launched. GSK said ‘the vast majority’ of suspected adverse reactions from Cervarix were either linked to recognised side effects, or the result of the injection process rather than the vaccine itself.

 
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