Gardasil Probed for ALS Connection
Gardasil may have played a role in two fatal cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to researchers from the ALS Center at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
ALS is a rapidly progressive, fatal disease. According to WebMD, the cases documented by the ALS Center involved two young women, ages 17 and 20. The story of one, 17-year-old Jenny Tetlock, has been reported on this blog before. Both young began showing symptoms of ALS just months after receiving a Gardasil shot. In Jenny Tetlock’s case, she had received her third and final vaccine in March 2007. The second victim, a 20-year-old, developed problems within four months of her fist Gardasil injection. According to WebMD, the disease progressed similarly in both young women before it took their lives. Jenny Tetlock died in March 2009, while the other young woman died 28 months after receiving Gardasil.
The ALS Center researchers concede that the development of ALS in both young women so soon after Gardasil vaccination could be a coincidence. But according to WebMD, they are concerned by a couple of factors. For one thing, the disease progressed more quickly than is usual for young ALS patients. Autopsies revealed the spinal cord of both victims was severely inflamed, something the researchers said is not typically seen with ALS. According to WebMD, the researchers believe these factors “all support a temporal association between [the illness] and vaccination.”