In a large study of nearly a million girls in Denmark and Sweden, the human papillomavirus vaccine was not linked to short- or long-term health problems.
The HPV vaccine, given in three doses over a period of six months to boys and girls around age 12, protects against infection by a virus that can cause cervical cancer.
“There were not really any concerns before our study and no new ones after,” Lisen Arnheim-Dahlström said. She led the study at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
The new study used national data from both countries to investigate how many girls ages 10 to 17 were diagnosed with any of 53 autoimmune or neurological problems, including celiac disease, pancreatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and narcolepsy. It also looked at whether girls developed blood clots shortly after vaccination, Reuters informs.
