San Francisco, CAAn examination of FDA records made public through the Freedom of Information Act, reportedly shows that 16 new deaths (including four suicides) were associated with Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine made by Merck.
A report in the SF Examiner, published this week also states that 3,589 adverse reactions to the vaccine were reported in the 16 month period between May 2009 and September 2010.
A 13-year old girl is among the fatalities, and two families, one in Maryland and the other in New York, also lost their daughters after they dropped dead shortly after getting the vaccine. Both girls were college aged. And, in 2008, a fourth girl in Maryland reportedly suffered a major stroke only days after receiving her second Gardasil injection.
The mother of 18-year old Christina Tarsell accused Merck of misrepresenting her daughter's case in the report the company sent to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Christina died just 18 days after receiving the vaccine.
"Merck said in its VAERS report that a physician reported that my daughter had an enlarged spleen caused by a virus that was life threatening," Tarsell told The Examiner. "That was totally made up. The autopsy report listed the cause of her death as 'undetermined,' a follow-up by CDC found no evidence of a viral infection, and the pathologist and her doctors all denied telling them that."