Ouch! Cervical cancer shots painful
Updated: 2008-01-04 16:07
Teens tend to faint from needles, so a three-dose vaccine for adolescents would be expected to prompt some added fainting, she said. Researchers aren't sure why teens faint more than other age groups, but nervousness may be a factor.
Gardasil is the first vaccine approved specifically to target the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes cervical and vaginal cancer. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for girls ages 9 to 26.
Preliminary studies indicate only 10 to 20 percent of them have gotten at least one dose.
But researchers said those rates are due to reasons other than worries about pain, including Gardasil's $120-a-shot price, limited supplies initially and mixed feelings by some parents and doctors about a vaccination that assumes girls have sex.
Dr. Andy Andrews, an Atlanta-area pediatrician, said he doesn't believe the shot's ouch has diminished demand.
"A lot of the older teens are coming in themselves, without a parent. So they themselves are motivated to come back in," Andrews said.
A second HPV vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, is under FDA review and could become available in 2008. Complaints of injection pain have not surfaced in clinical trials, said Liad Diamond, a company spokeswoman.
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