Pharmac are set to refresh the vaccine schedule. One of the proposed changes is involves access to the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.
Currently the schedule allows for free vaccination of women aged between 9 and 19 years old; male patients aged between 9 and 25 years old with confirmed HIV infection; and transplant patients.
In a consultation document released by Pharmac on 6 November 2013, a subtle change is proposed for the ages of both men and women so that it is available free to women under the age of 18 and men under 25. Transplant patients would still be eligible.
Many believe that not all the information needed to make an informed decision is available. It also appears, for some people, to be a very risky vaccination, having caused deaths, sterility and various long-term diseases.
Is this a vaccine that should be given to children?
Japan doesn’t think so. They have recently pulled support for the administration of this vaccine.
Mothers whose daughters have died after having Gardasil don’t think so.
Yet Pharmac continue to fund it.
Dr Deidre Little, an Australian obstetrician gives an address entitled “Does anyone need Gardasil”. In it she discusses the vaccine, the adverse events, research and the experience of early onset menopause in her teenage patient.
1 comments