Vaccination drive halts meningitis deaths
pharmafile | April 22, 2008 | News story | |Â Â Â
The national meningitis vaccination programme successfully prevented any deaths in young people in England last year, according to a new report.
This is a huge improvement on the situation in 1998 – the year before the vaccine was introduced – when meningococcal C/meningitis (MenC) killed 78 people under the age of 19 a year.
The new positive data has come from the Department of Health and been published to show that the vaccination scheme continues to save lives in the UK.
The report includes other national statistics for immunisation and was highlighted by health minister Dawn Primarolo, who said: "This report underlines the need for vaccination and proves that our programme is helping to halt diseases in their tracks.
"It is proof that the UK has one of the most successful immunisation programmes in the world, thanks to the hard work of NHS staff."
The risk of meningitis is highest in babies and young children but it can affect anyone.
A vaccination programme for MenC was introduced in the UK in November 1999, and cases in children have since been reduced by 95% and over 500 deaths prevented.
In January 2002, the programme of immunisation was extended to include everyone aged under-25.
A further pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), which protects against other diseases as well as Meningitis C, was then introduced nationally in 2006.
It has prevented an estimated 470 cases of serious illness or deaths in young children, such as meningitis, septicaemia and severe pneumonia.
The primary course of MenC vaccination consists of two doses, with an interval of one month between each dose. A third dose of combined Hib/MenC vaccine should be given at around 12 months. Children over one year and adults under 25 years of age should have a single dose of MenC-containing vaccine.
There are four available MenC vaccines: Meningitec from Wyeth, Menjugate, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur with Novartis Vaccines, NeisVac-C from Baxter Pharmaceuticals and Menitorix produced by GSK.
