East Finchley mother accuses pharmaceutical industry and government of ‘ignoring generation of sick girls’ as European Medicines Agency finds no link between illnesses and cervical cancer jab

A mother has said the voices of a generation of ill girls are being ignored after a European review found no link between the HPV vaccine and a disabling condition that has destroyed her daughter’s health.

East Finchley teenager Daisy, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, developed symptoms of the debilitating illness PoTS shortly after having the HPV jab to prevent cervical cancer aged 12.

Her mother Naomi is one of a group of parents with sick daughters who gathered evidence for a European review of the vaccine.

This week the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reported back saying the available evidence does not support the finding that PoTS and another rare condition, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), are caused by the vaccine.

Naomi said: “I feel extremely let down by this response from the EMA and am worried that its decision not to conduct a more thorough investigation into the symptoms being reported will leave families assuming this vaccine is completely safe. It isn’t.

“A generation of girls and young women like my daughter are being let down with no acknowledgement and no real help to recover their health. Rather like the recent grooming scandals, the voices of the ill girls are being ignored.

“If the scientists at the EMA believe there isn’t enough evidence from the UK to show there is a problem with this vaccine then it demonstrates that our systems of pharmacovigilance are completely broken. Politicians should call for a thorough investigation and I will be writing to my MP and MEPs about this.”

PoTS causes abnormal increases in heart rate and leads to extreme headaches, dizziness, nausea, aching limbs and tiredness. It has had a devastating impact on Daisy’s health and stolen her teenage years.

Other mothers also believe their daughter’s health has been harmed.

Yet government health agencies insist the vaccine is safe and say data gathered from 8 million doses given in the UK since 2008 has not raised any safety signals.

The vaccine protects against two types of the human papilloma virus (HPV) that cause 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer and uptake in the UK is 90 per cent.

The EMA said: “Use of these vaccines is expected to prevent many cases of cervical cancer - cancer of the neck of the womb which is responsible for 10,000s of deaths in Europe each year - and various other cancers and conditions caused by HPV. The benefits of HPV vaccines therefore continue to outweigh their risks. The safety of these vaccines will continue to be carefully monitored.”