Papillomavirus: death of a middle school student who fainted after being vaccinated

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: DAMIEN MEYER / AFP 15:21 p.m., October 30, 2023

An investigation has been opened after the death of a schoolboy who fainted and then fell after being vaccinated against the papillomavirus, the Pays de la Loire Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced on Monday, ruling out any link between the vaccine and the malaise. The teenager, a 5th grade student at the Saint-Dominique middle school in Saint-Herblain near Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) had a "heavy fall" which had caused a head injury, following a fainting spell that occurred 15 minutes after vaccination, the ARS said in a statement.

"This type of discomfort can occur due to the stress caused by vaccination but is unrelated to the vaccine product or to a defect in the quality of the vaccine," insists the ARS.

Vaccination campaign suspended

The student had been hospitalized at Nantes University Hospital after his fall but his condition deteriorated in the days that followed and he "died on October 27," the statement said. An administrative investigation has been conducted by the director general of the ARS "to establish the conditions for the vaccination and its medical surveillance in the establishment, as well as the conditions for the medical care of the child," the agency said.

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Following the accident of the schoolboy, the vaccination campaign was suspended in Loire-Atlantique on Friday 20 October, the day before the school holidays. It will resume at the start of the school year on November 6, we learned from the ARS. The vaccination campaign for middle school students in 5th grade against papillomavirus, the cause of many cancers such as cervical cancer, was launched in early October in France.