When the vaccine for cervical cancer was found, it was an Australian first. Gardasil was designed to protect against the second biggest cause of female deaths from cancer.

Now available free to any woman under 26, it has been given to millions.

But there have been side effects for a few hundred: nausea, dizziness, hallucinations, paralysis.

Allie Harvey lined up along with 2.2 million other Australian women to be administered with Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine developed by former Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer.

"I had a headache, I was dizzy, I was nauseous, my right side was weak, my right fist was clenched and I was hallucinating," Allie said.

"It was absolutely terrifying because I didn't know why it was happening. I felt absolutely terrified."

Gardasil has been hailed as a medical breakthrough, the first ever immunisation against cancer; but no-one was warned about this.

Far more frightening for the year 12 student - who received the first of three injections for the vaccine at school courtesy of a government sponsored initiative - was the response she received from the health professionals around her.

"The nurses that had come in from the government told me that I didn't have a rash, that it wasn't a reaction to the immunisation, that I was pretty much making things up," Allie said.

But Allie wasn't alone. Jade Foreman, 15, is another of the 496 young women who have reported having adverse reactions to the vaccine.

"I woke up one morning and tried to stand up and I couldn't put pressure on my legs, I had funny feelings in my legs," Jade said.

Since receiving the life saving injection at her school in June this year, Jade has been under intense physio to enable her to walk again. She is only able to cope with two hours of school per day.

"I now have no social life," Jade said. "The pain is ruling my life."

"Apart from the lower back pain and the neck and the middle back pain, I'm having trouble with my arms dropping things and funny sensations in my arms. It's just ruining my life."

Scientist and health researcher Bronwyn Hancock believes the mass-distribution of Gardasil is simply unsafe.

"The Gardasil vaccine has never been shown to be safe or effective in preventing cervical cancer," Bronwyn said. "There are so many limitations with the testing that they've done."

As a member of the Vaccination Information Service, an anti-immunisation group, Bronwyn says the research behind Gardasil is too flimsy and that the 18 million women worldwide who've already had the vaccine could be setting themselves up for broader health and fertility issues.

"They themselves admit they haven't tested it to show that it doesn't cause infertility or cancer," she said.

"They make a lot of money out of making vaccines and selling them and the government is very heavily influenced by big business, including the pharmaceutical industry."

But the vaccine's inventor appears to have one clear motive.

"We really want to see cervical cancer become something that's a disease of the past," Professor Frazer said.

And Professor Frazer refutes any suggestion further trials are needed before the drug is supplied to young women.

"If we had to wait to see if the vaccine could be proved its safe lifelong, we would be having epidemics of polio each summer, because the polio vaccine was only introduced 50 years ago."

He stands by the safety and effectiveness of his vaccine: "If 17 girls a week have been reported as having adverse reactions amongst 2.2 million women immunised in Australia to date, that sounds like a pretty small rate to me."

That's one in every 4,400 women.

Roberta Nicholls is one of the vast majority who reported no side effects from her Gardasil injections and has faith in the drug's ability to protect her from human papiloma virus (HPV), which is thought to cause cervical cancer.

"I think that cancer is something that everybody fears," Roberta said. "And if something's out there and it's a really easy simple way to prevent yourself from getting it, then why wouldn't you."

'''Information on Gardasil is available from the federal government: Gardasil and HPV.