With school physicals on the agenda during this month, some parents will feel pressured to give their child the Gardasil shot. The Gardasil vaccine is not a mandatory vaccine that is supposed to protect one from a virus called HPV that causes genital warts. There are a few facts worth mentioning that may provide a firmer stance for saying “no”.
In other countries if a child has asthma, any type of allergy to food, medicine or vaccines, a weakened immune system, a bleeding disorder, has a relative who became sick or died after getting a vaccine, is pregnant or is receiving another vaccine that day, they should not get the Gardasil shot.
Some of the risks of Gardasil are blood clots, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune disorders, neurological damage, seizures, blindness, paralysis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, infertility, miscarriage, anaphylaxis, throat cancer and death. In addition, it can cause genital warts (the symptom it is being used to prevent). This vaccine does not protect against cell abnormalities on annual pap-smears and has never been tested to see if it can cause DNA damage to tissue. The clinical trials determining the safely of Gardisal will not be completed until 2014.
If you get genital warts there is a simple procedure done in the gynecologist office to remove them usually within 15 minutes. At this point, it seems the risks far outweigh the benefits for receiving the Gardasil vaccine.