News: HPV vaccine not linked to Guillain-Barre

Girls and women who receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine do not have an increased risk of developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, according to research that will be presented April 25–May 2 at the American Academy of Neurology's 61st Annual Meeting in Seattle.

Nizar Souayah, MD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, and colleagues analyzed 2006–2008 data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is a cooperative program of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers found that 36 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome were reported in girls and women aged 13 to 50 after vaccination with the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, and that symptom onset occurred within 6 weeks after vaccination in 75% of the patients. They also found that Gardasil was the only vaccine administered in 60% of the cases and that it was combined with other vaccines in the other 40%. The researchers determined an incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome of about 7.0 per million in the post-Gardasil population compared to 4.0 to 10 per million in the general population.

More information and an abstract is available at http://www.aan.com/press/index.cfm?fuseaction=release.view&release=692/.