Chief Medical Officer urges parents not to panic about HPV vaccine

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Northern Ireland has said that some stocks of the HPV vaccine being used by Trusts here have been quarantined following the death of a girl in England.

The 14-year old took ill in school after receiving the HPV vaccine and later died. No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.

Dr Michael McBride said: "I would urge parents and children not to panic. The removal of this particular batch of the vaccine is purely a precautionary measure while the tragic death in England is being fully investigated. Some stocks of the same batch of the Cervarix vaccine were issued to Trust pharmacies in Northern Ireland and we have requested Trusts to quarantine this batch.

"School nurses and GPs have been informed not to use this particular batch until the results of testing are known.

"It is important that we have the results of further investigations as soon as possible to establish the cause of this sad death. The HPV programme will continue by using stocks from different batches. This is a worrying time for parents and their children, but I would urge everyone to listen to the advice of their GPs and school nurses."

Notes to editors:

1. The routine HPV vaccination programme was introduced for girls aged 12-13 years (school year 9) in September 2008. It is a school based programme.

2. In September 2008, there was an extension of the programme to offer protection to an additional cohort of girls aged 17-18 (School Year 14). These girls would have otherwise been excluded from the HPV programme, as the ‘catch up’ programme aimed at older girls up to the age of 18, did not commence until September 2009. These girls were offered immunised in primary care settings.

3. This year, girls aged between 14 and 18 years are being offered vaccination as part of the catch-up programme. In addition to the routine programme, all girls in Year 11 and Year 12 will be offered HPV immunisation at school, and all girls born between 2 July 1991 and 1 July 1993 will be offered HPV immunisation through primary care.

4. Each year in Northern Ireland, approximately 80 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed, resulting in between 30 and 40 deaths per annum. It is estimated that HPV vaccination could save the lives of up to 400 women in the UK each year, per cohort of girls who receive the vaccine.

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