FLINT, Mich. -- A cancer vaccine given to teenage girls is generating major concerns after the side effects were reported to be not worth it.

A Flint mother said her daughter’s attitude changed after receiving the drug. Taquaria Williams said her daughter does not act like a kid anymore; she’s just too tired.

Williams said everything changed last December after her daughter was given Gardasil, a vaccine that clinical studies have shown can prevent 70 percent of cervical cancer.

“She’s never been sick,” said Williams of her daughter. “She’s never been in the hospital, nothing, until the Gardasil shot.”

Two months after getting the shot, Williams said her daughter got a rash on her face and arms, leaving scars behind as evidence.

The girl reported having swelling all over, pain in her joints and poor circulation in her fingertips.

Williams said the doctors treating her daughter diagnosed her with an auto-immune disease and she said it is possible the Gardasil triggered the illness, though she made it clear the cause could not be proved.

According to a federal tracking system called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, there have been 9,749 adverse reactions following the vaccination.

Twenty-one deaths have also been reported following the vaccination, but Gardasil’s maker points out these are anecdotal cases.

In a statement, company officials said it “does not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused or contributed to the event.”

An official with the Centers for Disease Control said VAERS does not provide enough information for researchers to prove whether Gardasil caused any of the reported side effects and that the majority of the 8 million girls who have gotten the vaccine have had no problems.

While the CDC believes Gardasil is safe, a conservative group called Judicial Watch, which has been studying Gardasil safety, said parents' concerns about the vaccine are valid.

A representative of that group said, “Without long-term studies and a safety test, essentially, the public is being used as a large-scale public health test.”

Taquaria Williams was asked what would have happened if she had known that this research was out there.

“I would have never got it,” Williams said. “I would have never had her get the shot.”