HPV vaccine: Miracle or menace?

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - It's a drug that holds the promise of doing what no other vaccine has done before: preventing cancer. But some say it also poses great risk.

This week, the CDC decided to recommend the HPV vaccine for boys as well as girls. Scientists say the efficacy of the vaccine, with the brand name Gardasil, is unsurpassed, blocking the transmission of dangerous strains of the virus almost 100 percent of the time.

For parents, this vaccine seems to be an extraordinary gift that can arm children against a virus that causes cervical as well as anal cancer.

But a vocal minority believes the vaccine is not safe. Among them are girls who got the shot and later became sick.

Khonstince Couch is one of those girls. Her mother said she was healthy before she got Gardasil.

"GT, honor roll, all ‘A's cheerleading, basketball, in the youth group at church, singing in the choir, you name it: a healthy child," said Yvonne Harris, Couch's mother.

At age 9, Couch was so bright, teachers tapped her for the gifted and talented program. She excelled academically and athletically. During her annual check-up, her doctor vaccinated her against the virus that causes cervical cancer, HPV.

A week later, she got sick. Her decline was swift and severe. She suffered seizures, headaches and severe muscle weakness.

After three months in the hospital, Khonstince awoke a changed child.

"I had to, like, re-do math because I forgot all my math problems, and I had to learn to walk again," she recalled.

Now, her frail frame can't hold her for long, forcing frequent the use of a wheelchair. And learning, once so easy, is now a challenge.

But another mother, Amy Pingle, of Hobart, finds herself celebrates even the smallest signs of recovery in her own daughter, Zeda, now 16.

"I would give anything to hear anything out of her," Pingel said.

Zeda was a 13-year-old cheerleader and honor student when she got Gardasil during her annual check-up.

"She had a major seizure 14 days later," Pingel said.

It's now been three years, and Zeda never recovered. She is confined to a wheelchair. She can’t eat, speak or walk. She gets nourishment through a feeding tube.

This summer in Indianapolis, with a documentary film crew on site, Zeda and Khonstince and about 10 other girls gathered to talk about their experiences after the vaccine. They met through the website “ Truth About Gardasil ,” which was created by a mother who claims her daughter was sickened by the vaccine.

ThinkExist Productions is making a film called “ One More Girl ” – a play on the Gardisil branding slogan “One Less” - to document the harm some attribute to the vaccine.

All of the girls in attendance at the Indianapolis meetup reported adverse reactions to the three-shot series of vaccinations.

"I have seizures. I have paralysis. I have dizziness and lightheadedness every day," said 16-year-old Logansport native Hope Zimmerman.

The teenager has battled the symptoms for almost two years. Finally, finding no answers, one of Zimmerman's doctors sent her to the famed Mayo Clinic, conceding in his notes that her debilitating symptoms are "possible adverse reactions to Gardasil vaccine."

When asked if they have gotten a definitive diagnosis, the girls looked at each other knowingly and laughed. For all the Gardasil girls, as they're so often called, answers are elusive.

"They told me I had lupus or Guillain-Barre," said 16-year-old Dublin, Ga., native Megan Fisher.

Guillian-Barre syndrome, or GBS, is a potentially fatal neurological illness that has been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System as possibly linked to Gardasil.

24-Hour News 8 spent hours combing through thousands of VAERS documents and found hundreds of reports of seizure, muscle weakness and permanent disability after the administration of Gardasil.

But a recently released study from Vaccine Safety Datalink , a large collaboration of managed care companies, contradicts the causation claims. The study reviewed the cases of more than 600,558 children and adults who got the vaccine, and researchers found no increased risk of GBS or any other serious illness.

That's why the Centers for Disease Control recommends HPV vaccination for the prevention of most types of cervical cancer as well as anal cancer.

"I've been in the vaccine world for a long time,” said Indiana University scientist Darron Brown, who is on a team of researchers who helped create the vaccine, “and I think the safety of the HPV vaccine is unsurpassed compared to any other vaccine that's ever been made."

Brown is so confident about Gardasil's safety and efficacy that he vaccinated all three of his own children.

And he points out that of the more than 35 million doses distributed in the U.S., 18,725 adverse events were reported, and only 8 percent of those were considered serious. Of all of them, Brown said, CDC investigators decided none were attributable to the vaccine.

He said countless studies stand as proof of the vaccine's safety. And he