Debate over vaccinating girls against the human papillomavirus to prevent cervical cancer is running hot in Britain after a 14-year-old schoolgirl died and an older teen developed epileptic seizures and brain damage following the jabs.

A couple of weeks ago the UK’s drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Health care products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), reported that over 2000 individuals had suffered adverse reactions, some more than once, giving a total of 4602 suspected reactions to the vaccine Cervarix. They ranged from mild (rashes, pain in the arm, and allergies) to serious (convulsions, eye rolling, muscle spasms, seizures and hyperventilation). A similar report about Gardasil was published in the United States in August.

Anti-vaccine groups are warning parents off the Cervarix programme, which has been rolled out through schools (on a voluntary basis) starting in April last year, while professionals and cancer charities are urging people to continue. The latter argue that, given the millions of girls and young women vaccinated so far, serious reactions are extremely rare and are far outweighed by the benefits of reducing the risk of developing cervical cancer from the now very widespread and sexually transmitted HPV.

Drug companies manufacturing and promoting the vaccine (and profiting handsomely from it) are naturally rejecting the assumption that it caused particular reactions until there is proof. They -- and public health officials -- say that 14-year-old Natalie Morton most likely had “a serious underlying medical condition” that caused her death. The chaplain at the Anglican school she attended said there was nothing on her file to indicate that she suffered from epilepsy or any health problem.

Here is how one public health number cruncher sees it:

Even if the girl’s death proves to be a consequence of the vaccination, and it is still a big ‘if’, only one death would be prevented for every 500,000 girls who decided not to be vaccinated – albeit at the cost of 700 deaths to cervical cancer.

That is no comfort to her bereaved parents, however, or the parents who now have brain damaged daughter to look after. And, really, we have to come back to the truth that the HPV and cervical cancer epidemics -- like AIDS -- are basically very preventable with a change in behaviour. But rolling back the sexually permissive society seems to be the last thing on the minds of health authorities.