Merck Issues Voluntary Recall on Gardasil Vaccine may be Contaminated with Glass

Merck has issued a voluntary recall of one lot of Gardasil vaccine due to fears that some vials of the vaccine may contain glass particles, health officials announced late Friday.

Gardasil protects against certain strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer in women. The CDC added that it continues to recommend that all preteen girls and boys receive three doses of the vaccine at age 11 or 12 years old.

The pharmaceutical company said they were contaminated during a breakdown in the breakdown of production. They estimate that only 10 of the 743,360 vials in the lot may have been affected, Fox News reported.

Fox explains what could happen if a patient is injected with one of the defective shots, “A medical assessment conducted by Merck concluded that if a patient were to receive one of the contaminated vaccines, they had a “remote risk” of experiencing a reaction at the injection site.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that it purchased 350,000 doses of Gardasil from this lot for their own vaccination programs.” Barbara Reynolds, spokeswoman for the Center for Disease Control, told the Boston Globe the agency has received no reports of injuries or adverse health effects related to the vaccine.

The CDC made a statement about the issue, “Vaccines from the affected lot were distributed between August 20, 2013, and October 9, 2013. No other lots are affected. People who have recently received an HPV vaccine or their parents do not need to take any action as a result of this recall.  If a vaccine containing glass particles (tiny enough to get through a needle) is given to a patient, reactions routinely seen after vaccination may occur (for instance, swelling at the injection site).”

CDC said Merck is in the process of contacting customers who purchased vaccines from this lot, # J007354, which was distributed in the United States and Puerto Rico.