Concerned mum sets up vaccine site

JOHN BISSET/Timaru Herald

HEALTH WORRIES: Julie Smith wants the HPV vaccine halted and has set up the website www.offtheradar.co.nz to outline her concerns.

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A Timaru mother wants the HPV vaccine programme stopped as she believes it led to the death of a Lower Hutt teenager.

Jasmine Renata died last September. Her mother believes it was caused by the vaccine Gardasil which is used to immunise girls against strains of the human papillomavirus which is linked to cervical cancer.

Mrs Renata is still waiting for an autopsy to determine if the vaccine was linked her daughter's death.

Timaru mother Julie Smith was so concerned about what she discovered when researching the vaccine last year to decide if her 10-year-old daughter should have the vaccine, she set up her own website, offtheradar.co.nz, and opted not to immunise. However the Ministry of Health is standing by the vaccine.

"I have been inundated with mothers and girls concerned about the vaccine," Mrs Smith said.

"In New Zealand it is thought three girls have died since receiving Gardasil, and they were healthy prior to being immunised.

"The Ministry of Health is reporting the vaccine is safe but they are using the drug companies' trial data.

"I am just a mum who started looking into it. I have had my children vaccinated up until now.

"I think people need to be given the full facts."

She did not believe the risks of the vaccine outweighed the number of girls it would protect.

The ministry's chief adviser of population health, Dr John Holmes, said the ministry was looking into one report of a death of a young women following HPV immunisation.

- © Fairfax NZ News