A revolutionary vaccine that can stop meningitis B from devastating the lives of children has been approved for use on the NHS.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was expected to announce today that the Government is going to fund the Bexsero vaccine.
Last October the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that the vaccine should not be made available for free because it was not cost-effective.
Meningitis jab: Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was expected to announce today that the Government is going to fund the Bexsero vaccine
But Mr Hunt has been under mounting pressure to ensure the vaccine is fast-tracked into routine use and the Mail understands that the JCVI is moving towards approving NHS use of the £75-a-shot vaccine as part of the UK’s routine immunisation programme.
Steve Dayman, founder of Meningitis Now, lost his son to meningitis 31 years ago.
He said last night: ‘We’ve been campaigning for this vaccine for the last year. If approved, this vaccine will save thousands of lives.’
In January, 118 leading doctors wrote a letter urging Mr Hunt to give the jab the green light.
Simon Nadel, a paediatric consultant at St Mary’s Hospital, London, who co-ordinated the letter, said: ‘The [jab] has been made available to those who can afford it, but it is a cause for concern that after years of research, a life-saving vaccine which could significantly increase protection offered to all our children, could be shelved.’
Support: In January, 118 leading doctors wrote a letter urging Mr Hunt to give the jab the green light
The vaccine, which took 17 years of research by Swiss company Novartis, was approved by the European Medicines Agency in November 2012 and licensed by the European Commission in January last year.
MENINGITIS: A TERRIFYING DISEASE
Meningitis is a disease that terrifies parents and health professionals alike.
With symptoms that can appear flu-like, it can turn overnight into a life-threatening condition.
If meningitis-related blood infection takes hold, often the only way to save a child’s life is to amputate a limb. Hundreds of children are left disabled every year.
Some forms of the disease have been wiped out by vaccination, but meningitis B, the most common form, has remained a killer.
The new vaccine is estimated to cover 88 per cent of cases in the UK. Over the past decade there have been more than 10,000 cases recorded in England and Wales, with 500 deaths.
Meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia remain the leading infectious cause of death for children under the age of five.
Children who survive face neurological damage, limb amputation and severe skin damage.
Almost 200 scientists and researchers signed a public petition and letter last month, which described meningitis and meningococcal disease as ‘a parent’s greatest fear’, and pointed to the JCVI calculation as ‘underestimating’ the realities of the disease for both children and their families.
They urged Mr Hunt to ask for a re-evaluation by JCVI ‘as swift as possible’. A petition of 20,000 signatures was also organised by the Meningitis Now foundation.
A counter on the charity’s website estimates that 673 cases could have been prevented with the Bexsero vaccine since it was licensed last year.
Although the vaccine costs £75 a dose and children can need up to four to be protected, some private practices have been charging upwards of £600 for the immunisation.
Despite the cost, thousands of parents have paid privately for their children to be vaccinated.
About 85 per cent of private sales have been in affluent areas of the country such as London and the South East, leaving the NHS open to criticism that it was leaving vulnerable children in deprived areas at risk by not providing the vaccine for free.
Although vaccines for other strains of the disease have been successful, the meningitis B vaccine remains a major health fear. The Department of Health refused to comment ahead of today’s announcement.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2585837/New-meningitis-jab-child-NHS-vaccines-committee-reverses-advice.html#ixzz2wckPlDGv
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