[Adverse effects of the human papillomavirus vaccine].

OBJECTIVE

To describe the most frequent adverse reactions produced by the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional descriptive study using a telephone survey.

SETTING

A province in the Andalusian Public Health System.

PARTICIPANTS

Females vaccinated against HPV in Andalusia, selected by simple random sampling representative of the province.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

A total of 3,135 telephone calls were made by the public service "Health Answers" using telephone operators supervised by health personnel.

RESULTS

Of the 2,880 calls that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 1,207 people (41.9% response) took part in the survey. Of the 2,124 surveys made there was some type of adverse reaction (fever, inflammation, pain or rash) in 467 doses (22%): 6.6% was fever, 49.5% inflammation, 72.4% pain, and 6% a rash.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be said that HPV vaccine is safe, which is in agreement with that published in the summary of the product characteristics and in the literature.