(June 6, 2008)—After nearly two years on the market, concerns about the HPV Vaccine Gardasil have arisen in North Texas.

In June 2006, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to recommend the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by certain types ofgenital human papillomavirus (HPV).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “the vaccine, Gardasil, protects against four HPV types, which together cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.”

The vaccine is given through a series of three injections over a six-month period.

But a Dallas teenager says she has had increasingly adverse side effects after receiving the second injection of that vaccination.

Katherine Kimzey, 14, told the Dallas Morning News she had headaches and fainting spells before suffering a seizure and being diagnosed with epilepsy.

She believes her symptoms are connected to the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Katherine’s mother, Michelle Kimzey says her daughter’s symptoms mirrored many of the 5,000 reports filed by the public through a national database that monitors the safety of vaccines after they are licensed.

"When you read everybody's stories, they're too similar not to be related,” she said.

But, according to the Dallas Morning News report, officials with the CDC as well as doctors nationwide say such concerns about the drug are unfounded and most significant side effects reported are unrelated to the vaccine.

The CDC website reports concerns about the safety and efficiency of the vaccine Gardasil.

It says since the vaccine has been licensed, the most common side effects have been local injection site reactions such as fainting.

There have, however, been at least three deaths reported in connection to the more than five million doses of Gardasil that have been administered, one involving a pulmonary embolism; one myocarditis due to influenza-A infection; and one from a blood clot.