Q. Is her death linked to the vaccine?
A. The initial post mortem said was "most unlikely" the vaccine was the cause of death. It could have been nothing more than a coincidence, although one scenario that has been presented is she had a very rare severe allegric reaction to the vaccine, known as anaphylaxsis, which can be fatal.
Q - If the vaccine did not cause her death what did?
A - She may have had an undetected heart problem. The preliminary post mortem says she had a "serious underlying medical condition" which was likely to have caused her death. There have been unconfirmed reports she may have had epilepsy and children can die from fits in rare occassions.
Q. Has the vaccine caused health problems before?
A. On rare occassions, a person does serious side effects such as anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal. It has also caused dizziness and paralysis.
Extensive safety studies were performed prior to the introduction of the vaccine, but they may not have picked up very rare events, things that only happen once in every million doses, for example.
Q. What safety measures have been taken?
A. As a precaution, the batch from which Natalie was immunised (AHPVA043BB) has been quarantined. The Department of Health has also ordered all primary care trusts to check if they had any of the vaccine.
Q. What if my daughter has already had a dose from this batch?
A. Dr David Elliman, Consultant In Community Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children said that even in the unlikely event that the death had been related, "you can be reassured that any similar reaction would be apparent by now. You have no need to be concerned."
Q. Should we go on using the vaccine?
A. Other batches of the vaccine remain in use. There have been nine million doses of the vaccine administered in 99 other countries and it has an extremely good safety record. Experts have said it it 'extremely unlikely' that there is a problem with the vaccine in general. Deaths have been associated with the other cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, however experts have said they were not caused by the jab.