Fears as life-saving meningitis vaccine is 'canceled for commercial reasons' trends now
Doctors have raised the alarm over plans to stop giving toddlers a meningitis vaccine, claiming it would leave children vulnerable to the life-threatening infection.
All youngsters in the UK receive the jab, which protects against meningococcal group C (MenC) bacteria, around their first birthday. These bugs cause meningitis – a rare infection of the protective membranes around the brain and spine.
The condition, which strikes healthy children without warning, is difficult to distinguish from milder childhood illnesses in the early stages and can lead to death within 24 hours.
Bacterial meningitis can cause life-threatening blood poisoning called septicaemia and lead to serious injuries, including loss of limbs, deafness and brain damage.
Since meningitis vaccines were introduced in 1999, yearly cases have dropped from about 1,300 to just a handful
Dropping the vaccine for one-year-olds is expected to happen when stocks of Menitorix run out in 2025, but charity Meningitis Now says the change could ‘place lives at risk’
Last summer, drug firm GSK, which makes the jab named Menitorix, announced it would halt production in what was said to be ‘a commercial decision’.
In response, vaccine chiefs have said it will be dropped entirely from the child immunisation schedule.
At the same time, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the Government, is replacing another aspect of the combined injection which protects against Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib – a different meningitis-causing bacteria. It does not plan to replace the MenC element.
Their experts say that because teenagers are now given a meningitis jab called MenACWY, children are indirectly protected.
Since meningitis vaccines were introduced in 1999, yearly cases have dropped from about 1,300 to just a handful. This is a sign herd immunity has been reached – when levels of a bug in circulation fall to such low levels it becomes highly unlikely to catch it.
Dropping the vaccine for one-year-olds is expected to
