Op-Ed: Are young girls becoming guinea pigs when given unproven drugs for their ages

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Gardasil a new vaccine that has only been studied for about six years is being recommended to be given to all girls from age nine and up.

Gardasil is made by Merck & Co. and has been approved by the FDA. It states that its purpose is to prevent cervical cancer in females who are between the ages of 9 and 26 years old.

Gardasil is a vaccine against the HPV or Human Papillomavirus. The Gardasil vaccine protects recipients against 4 types of HPV, including the two types that cause most cervical cancers and the two types that cause the most genital warts.

One of the problems is that there were only 1,200 that were studied that were between the ages of 9 to 15 years old. Only 100 of them were nine years old.

All of the reported vaccine trials were funded all or in part by the manufacturers of the vaccine.

Another problem is no one knows how long Gardasil will be effective. Since it has only been studied for six years it is not known as some experts believe, if a booster will be needed in ten years or so. Even though it has been tested on girls as young as nine there is no definite proof that it even works in those girls who are preteens,

The efficacy trials of this vaccine didn't include anyone under age 16," says gynecologist Diane Harper, a professor of women's and gender studies at Dartmouth College who conducted some of the trials. Assuming that the vaccine does work in younger girls, she adds, it doesn't matter whether they're vaccinated at age 11, 13, or 17—though better that it happen before they're sexually active.

Diane M. Harper, a lead researcher has spent 20 years developing the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus states that the vaccine is not for younger girls.

Harper also states that the vaccine has not been tested for its effectiveness in the younger girls and to give it to younger girls may not protect them at all.

"Giving it to 11-year-olds is a great big public health experiment," said Diane M. Harper, who is a scientist, physician, professor and the director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire.

"It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11- to 12-year-old girls. There is also not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue."

There have been eleven deaths reported after receiving the vaccine.

One female died three hours after she received the Gardasil vaccine from a blood clot. It was reported that a 12 and 19 year old girl died from heart problems and/or blood clotting.

Some of the side-effects that have been reported are paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures. According to the FDA 42 women received the vaccination while pregnant. Of those 18 had complications that ranged from miscarriages to fetal abnormalities.

Is it right to be giving this vaccination and birth control pills to young girls as I reported in an article two days ago.

It is not known the short or long term effects of these drugs on girls as young as nine years old.

Before parents agree to any of these, what I see as experiments on their children, they better check out any information they can find then decide what is the best choice to make.