The five national HPV centres that opened on July 1 are already stretched to the limit by young girls and women who are believed to be suffering side-effects from the HPV vaccine.
As of now, over 1,100 girls displaying symptoms such as muscle spasms, dizziness and a loss of consciousness have been referred to the centres, according to a survey by Metroxpress newspaper.
“We are still being referred a number of girls and are up to about 265 in total,” Vibeke Neergaard Sørensen, a doctor at the diagnosis centre at the regional hospital in Silkeborg, told Metroxpress.
Sørensen said the centre had only expected about 50 girls to turn up, but their waiting list is now about nine months as a result.
READ MORE: Danish health authorities looking into HPV vaccines
Woefully under prepared
The story is pretty much the same in the nation’s other four regions. In the capital region, some 525 girls have been referred to the regional HPV centre in Frederiksberg. In north Jutland they’ve received 100, while there have been 170 in Zealand. Odense stopped counting after reaching 60 in June alone.
“It’s a disaster. They’ve established five HPV centres without having the personnel in place to receive the girls, and now they might have to wait a half or whole year,” said Karsten Viborg, a father to one of the ill girls, who is the co-founder of an association for girls injured by HPV vaccines, Landsforeningen HPV-bivirkningsramte.
Since the HPV vaccine was approved in Denmark in 2006, about 500,000 young girls and women have been vaccinated – most as part of the national child vaccination program. Since 2009, the health authority Sundhedsstyrelsen has received 1,730 reports of side effects.
