[link to www.express.co.uk]

THE cervical cancer vaccine may be riskier and more deadly than the cancer it is designed to prevent, a leading expert who developed the drug has warned.

She also claimed the jab would do nothing to reduce the rates of cervical cancer in the UK.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Express, Dr Diane Harper, who was involved in the clinical trials of the controversial drug Cervarix, said the jab was being “over-marketed” and parents should be properly warned about the potential side effects.

Authorities in the UK should be on the alert because its sister vaccine, Gardasil, used in America, has already been associated with 32 deaths, she said.

Her comments follow the death of 14-year-old Natalie Morton, who collapsed an hour after receiving the jab at school last week.

It is highly unusual for a researcher to publicly criticise a vaccine which they helped get approved.

However, Dr Harper, who has written many of the published medical papers about the jab, is so concerned she decided to speak out.

Dr Harper, of the University of Missouri-Kansas, said she believed the risks – “small but real” – could be worse than the risk of developing cancer itself.

And she claimed: “All this jab will do is prevent girls getting some abnormalities associated with cervical cancer which can be treated. It will not decrease cervical cancer rates at all.

“Parents need to know this and that in a small number of cases there are serious side effects.”

Post mortem results last week blamed Natalie’s death on a rare cancer but Dr Richard Halvorsen, author of The Truth About Vaccines, said: “One minute Natalie is an apparently healthy girl, she has the vaccine and within two hours she is dead.

We are told she had a terrible cancer inside her that killed her but this is implausible.

“If you have cancer you have symptoms. Clearly public health doctors are desperate to turn the debate away from the vaccine as a possible cause.”

Jabs, the vaccine support group, has received details of 19 girls who have suffered serious health problems, including seizures, fatigue or joint and muscle pain, since their jabs.

The Sunday Express revealed earlier this year that some of them have launched legal action against the makers of Cervarix.

Lisa Wickendon, 13, of Chobham, Surrey, developed muscle weakness in her legs after her third dose of vaccine last March, leaving her unable to walk.

When hospital tests came back normal, doctors said her symptoms were in her mind and referred her to a mental health team.

However, a consultant psychiatrist said her mental health was sound and her symptoms had “a strong relationship to receiving the vaccine”.

Her mother Elizabeth, a secretary, said: “She couldn’t walk or see properly. She couldn’t make those things up.”

GlaxoSmith-Kline, which makes Cervarix, said: “The vaccine has been thoroughly tested. Over 1.4million doses have been administered and it is estimated will save up to 400 lives a year.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “The coroner is absolutely clear that the vaccine did not cause Natalie’s
death. I strongly urge all girls to have the vaccine when they are offered it. It has an excellent safety record.”