WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Very few girls vaccinated with the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine experience an adverse reaction to the vaccine, and most of those that do can tolerate subsequent doses, according to research published Dec. 2 in BMJ Online First.

Liew Woei Kang, of the Royal Children's Hospital in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues conducted a study of 35 Australian schoolgirls aged 12 to 18.9 years who received the quadrivalent HPV vaccine through the national secondary school immunization program, in which more than 380,000 doses had been administered, and who subsequently developed a suspected hypersensitivity reaction to the vaccine.

Of the 25 girls who consented to evaluation, 23 (92 percent) of them had an adverse reaction after the first dose, including 13 (52 percent) who experienced urticaria or angioedema, the researchers report. Two girls experienced anaphylaxis. Of the 19 girls who underwent skin prick testing with the vaccine, only one had a positive intradermal test result and, in all, three girls were deemed to be hypersensitive to the vaccine, the report indicates.

"Most females with suspected hypersensitivity to this vaccine tolerate revaccination," the authors write. "Our clinical recommendation is that females with suspected hypersensitivity to the quadrivalent vaccine should be evaluated before receiving more doses, and any challenges with the same vaccine should be carried out in a supervised setting. Further studies are required to investigate the mechanisms of hypersensitivity to this vaccine."

Several of the study authors report financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

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