Breaking News: Japan Suspends Recommendation of HPV Vaccines

and Welfare told local governments to suspend their previous recommendation for HPV vaccine administration to the country's 12 to 16 year old girls. Mrs. Tomoko Saito, reporter for The Asahi Shimbun, emailed this front page news article to the SaneVax team the same day. According to the article, Health Ministry withdraws recommendation for cervical cancer vaccine: “Girls can still receive the vaccination for free, although medical institutions must now inform them beforehand that the ministry does not recommend it.” The Japanese government has subsidized the use of either Gardasil or Cervarix since 2010, but the HPV vaccines marketed to prevent cervical cancer did not come into widespread use until after revisions to Japan's Preventive Vaccination Law took effect in April 2013. These changes also added pneumococcal vaccines and Japanese encephalitis vaccines to the country's recommended schedule. Side effect reports for each of the four newly approved vaccines are as follows: Cervarix- 245.1 per 1 million vaccinations Gardasil- 155.7 per 1 million vaccination