The Ministry of Health of New Zealand has recently been urged to recall the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil after several batches of the drug have turned up positive for HPV contamination. The contaminated batches contained a synthetic recombinant of HPV DNA.
Six batches have tested positive for HPV DNA. Vaccine samples obtained from Australia, Spain, Poland, France and the U.S. have tested positive for the HPV virus as well. The Merck drug has previously been associated with bad reactions in patients, leading to hospitalization in many cases. Since its approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006, the FDAs vaccine events reporting site (VEARS) has reported over 12,000 cases of adverse or negative reactions to the vaccine. Of these, only one case has resulted in death.
SANE Vax Inc. was prompted to investigate the vaccine after and adolescent girl developed acute onset Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, a condition characterized by inflammation of the joints, within 24 hours of having been administered the vaccine. The girl’s mother sought the aid of a MD practicing naturopath, who found HPV DNA in the child’s blood. If HPV exists in a person’s body, it typically exists in the skin or mucous membranes as opposed to the blood.
According to Dr. Sin Hang Lee, a pathologist at the Milford Hospital in Conneticut, stated that HPV DNA cannot survive in the bloodstream very long. However, the HPV DNA found in the Gardasil vaccine is not naturally occurring. This particular strain of DNA is a genetically engineered recombinant, or rDNA. It is well-known that rDNA behaves differently than natural DNA and may enter human cells, though the mechanism for this is not well understood.
“Once a segment of recombinant DNA is inserted into a human cell, the consequences are hard to predict,” said Lee. “It may be in the cell temporarily or stay there forever, with our without causing a mutation. Now the host cell contains human DNA as well as genetically engineered, viral DNA.”
Recombinant DNA works by combining natural or synthetic DNA sections in order to replicate a living cell and the possibility of a recombinant forming an uncertain, toxic substance has been a concern since the conception of rDNA. The national institues of health (NIH) has already imposed regulations for research instituions to monitor its use. All synthetic or recombinant DNA molecules are marked as potential biohazards if they are injected intramuscularly, as the Gardasil vaccine is. According to SANE Vax, Inc., Merck should have been required by the FDA to assess the dangers associated with Gardasil administration prior to marketing and selling the drug.
“This serious revelation has highlighted that the regulatory authorities rely too much on industry-based finidings and not independent science,” said Claire Bleakly, president of GE-Free NZ. “There are increasing reports of auto immune diseases such as juvenile arthritis and Gullian-Barre Syndrome occurring after the use of recombinant vaccines, raising questions about the impact of genetically engineered foreign proteins in food and vaccines.”
