Do more studies before mass vaccinations, urges doc

What say you on the issue below?

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry should not rush into mass cervical cancer vaccinations before carrying out studies locally on the vaccine efficacy and safety, said the Malaysian Trades Union Congress health adviser Dr T. Jaya Balan.

There was not enough information about the vaccine, and no large scale study done on its efficacy and safety profile, he said.

“I do not think we need to rush in yet because there is a lot of debate going on about the vaccine,” he said in commenting on the ministry’s move to provide vaccination for all 13-year-olds from next year.

Dr Jaya also said that the ministry must bear in mind that, “children are more vulnerable to unsafe use of medication and it should be cautious in adopting the vaccination”.

The ministry should also consider if the vaccination is cost effective when it only protects against two strains of the virus while there were more than 100 types of human papillomavirus (HPV) and at least 15 are cancer-causing.

“A parent, physician, politician, or anyone should decide whether it is good to give young girls a vaccine that partly prevents infection caused by a sexually transmitted disease and an infection that causes cancer in few cases and that too, after 20 to 40 years from now.”

The current vaccine is targeted at only HPV 16 and HPV 18 strains, and the relationship between the infection and the virus and the development of cancer 20 to 40 years was still unclear, he said.

“The virus (in general) does not appear to be very harmful because almost all HPV infections are cleared by the immune system and only in a few cases, the infection prevails with a precancerous cervical growth which in turn becomes cancerous,” he said.

Moreover, it was impossible to predict as to who would develop cancer from HPV infection and its effects on the incidence of cervical cancer after vaccination in young women and girls 20 to 40 years from now, he added.

“While most reported adverse events in the United States due to the use of the vaccine were not serious, serious ones had been reported too such as hypersensitivity including anaphylaxis, Guillain Barre Syndrome (a type of paralysis), Tranverse myelitis, pancreatitis and venous thromboembolic events,” he said.