SIXTY-FOUR schoolgirls given a controversial cervical cancer vaccine have reported "adverse reactions" – less than 1% of those who received the immunisation.

Doctors administering the injection have been encouraged to make reports on any adverse reactions, even if they only suspect the vaccine was responsible for these symptoms.

Some doctors reported serious cases, including two girls who suffered anaphylactic-type reactions after being vaccinated.

The most commonly-reported symptoms involved fainting, sometimes in conjunction with seizure-like movements, along with reports of dizziness and hyperventilation.

Two people – one of whom already had a history of epilepsy – reported seizures, the Irish Medicines Board said.

Other adverse effects reported following administration of the Gardasil vaccine included malaise, headache, dizziness, fatigue and stomach upset.

In all, 64 adverse reports have been made to the Irish Medicines Board, 55 of them since the rollout of the school immunisation programme.

An estimated 60,000 doses of Gardasil have been distributed so far with around three-
quarters of them given by the end of October.

Medical sources said the number of adverse reports was expected and may even have been on the lower end of the scale.

The Irish Medicines Board said: "Suspected adverse reaction reporting rates are highly variable and are dependent on many factors.

"Therefore, these data cannot be used to determine the frequency of occurrence of adverse reactions to Gardasil [and] a single report may include more than one suspected reaction."