To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the safety of the HPV vaccination.
Answered on
7 November 2016
As with all vaccines and medicines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is monitoring the safety of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in the United Kingdom. The MHRA takes advice from the Government's independent expert advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines, when evaluating the risks and benefits of medicines and vaccines. The MHRA's current assessment is that available evidence does not support a causal link between the HPV vaccination and development of chronic illnesses, and that the benefits in protecting against cervical cancer and other HPV-related disease outweigh the possible known side effects of the vaccines.
Separately, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) carried out reviews of HPV vaccine safety in June 2015 and also advised that available evidence does not support a causal link between the HPV vaccine and development of chronic illnesses. JCVI concluded that it had no concerns about the safety of the HPV vaccine and strongly supported continued use of the vaccine to prevent infection with HPV and reduce cases of cervical cancer and other HPV associated cancers.