Politicans call for free Meningitis B vaccine

The government should consider making the Meningitis B vaccine free to every child nationwide, according to Deputy Barry Cowen.

Two local politicians have called on the government to consider introducing a Meningitis B vaccine prograqmme for every child in the country.

The politicians, Deputy Barry Cowen and Social Democrats local election candidate Clare Claffey, were commenting in the wake of the deaths of three people from the illness in the past three weeks.

"Meningococcal disease may occur at any age but the highest rate of meningococcal disease occurs in children under 5 years of age, especially children under one year of age. The next highest risk group are young people aged 15-19 years. In Ireland the risk of infection is highest in winter and early spring," Deputy Cowen said.

"It was a welcome development in 2016 when the lifesaving Meningitis B vaccine was made available free of charge for infants up to the age of 12 months. However, for other children there is a cost of some €280 for the two shots required. For a family with several children such a cost could be prohibitive. It could also be life threatening.

"We need to examine what we can do to make it free for all children. The HSE must urgently consider providing it free to children in areas at risk. It’s also critical that the HSE moves to boost the take up rates for all Meningitis vaccines as it has fallen slightly in recent years. These vaccines save lives and it is important that all our children get them. A more proactive approach is needed from government given three deaths in the past three weeks", concluded the Fianna Fail man.

Ms Claffey has called on Minister for Health Simon Harris to implement a Meningitis B Vaccine catch-up programme for children born before October 2016.

Since the end of December, 11 cases of Meningitis B have been reported in Ireland and three children have died from the illness in recent weeks.

Speaking from her home in Banagher, Claffey said: “Children under 6 and early teens are most at risk from this illness, and only children born since late 2016 are vaccinated. For those of us who want to protect our children from this deadly but preventable illness, we must do so privately, at a cost of about €300 per child.

“I’m very concerned that all seven of my children were born before 2016 and are therefore not vaccinated. After consulting my GP I have discovered it would cost over €2,000 to have my children vaccinated privately. Three of my children have long term health issues and two others fall into the high risk category. Parents like me feel like we are being forced to chose which child to vaccinate”.

An online petition by Social Democrats representative Catherine Stocker to urge Simon Harris to make the vaccine freely available to all children at risk has gathered over 20,000 signatures in a few short days.