Two-thirds of UK parents unaware about vaccinations
Meningitis charities have warned that more than two-thirds of parents in the UK are unaware that current vaccinations do not protect their children from all forms of meningitis.
A new campaign Meningitis: Keep Watching has urged parents and families to Pledge to Protect their children from meningitis by learning more about the disease and ensuring vaccinations are up to date.
Professor Simon Kroll, a Paediatric and Meningitis specialist, has described the next stage for the vaccine:
"The next stage is discussion between the Department of Health and the manufacturers, and ultimately it's up to Government to decide how the vaccine is introduced in to the schedule - but we haven't got that point yet."
New Meningitis vaccine 'has taken years to get there'
Helen Dolphin contracted Meningitis when she was twenty-two and contracted Meningitis. In order to save her life doctors had to amputate all four of her limbs. She said today's new vaccine has been a long time coming. She said:
"It is amazing to think in this day and age we can have a virus that can cause this much devastation, to so many people. The work that has been done, to find a vaccine, it has taken years to get there, and I fully support its implementation"
Meningitis vaccine could 'save thousands of lives'
A new Meningitis B vaccine, approved for UK use today, "will save thousands of lives, especially among children under five, who are most at risk from the disease", according to Meningitis UK.
The vaccine is the first to be licensed specifically for Meningitis B, one of the deadliest and most common strains of the disease:
Meningitis B is the most common form of the disease in the UK, affecting 1,870 people each year, many of them children
One in 10 people who contract the disease will die
One in four will be left with life-changing after effects, such as brain damage or limb loss
A new vaccine against Meningitis B has been approved for use in the UK.
The vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical giant Bexsero, received its licence from the European Commission today.
Meningitis UK is urging the Government to make the vaccine part of the NHS childhood immunisation schedule, so that it "will save as many lives as possible".
Meningitis UK is warning parents to look out for signs of the virus as children return to the classroom. The charity says there is often a back to school surge in cases.
