This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/02/government-rejects-calls-for-meningitis-b-vaccine-to-be-given-to-all-children

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Government rejects calls for meningitis B vaccine for all children Government rejects calls for meningitis B vaccine for all children
(about 3 hours later)
The government has rejected calls for the meningitis B vaccine to be given to children of all ages, saying it would not be cost-effective for the NHS. The government has rejected calls for all children up to the age of 11 to be given the meningitis B vaccine, in spite of a petition signed by more than 800,000 people following the death of Faye Burdett, two, from the disease.
More than 815,000 people have signed a petition calling for the jab Bexsero to be given to all children, not just newborn babies. In a response posted on the petition website, the Department of Health said it would not be cost-effective to give the vaccine to children outside the highest-risk groups – infants who are offered it at two and four months, followed by a booster at 12 months.
But in a response to the petition, the Department of Health (DoH) said its priority was to vaccinate those children considered most at risk from meningitis B. The department was following the advice of its scientific advisers at the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI), it said. “There is a duty on the secretary of state for health to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the recommendations of the JCVI, are implemented,” said the statement.
The petition – which calls for all children to be vaccinated, or at least those up to age 11 – is the biggest online petition in parliamentary history. “Our priority is to protect those children most at risk of MenB, in line with JCVI’s recommendation. The NHS budget is a finite resource. It is therefore essential that JCVI’s recommendations are underpinned by evidence of cost-effectiveness. Offering the vaccine outside of JCVI’s advice would not be cost-effective, and would not therefore represent a good use of NHS resources which should be used to benefit the health and care of the most people possible.”
Related: If you knew my son, you’d sign the petition for a meningitis B vaccination | Claire ShalaRelated: If you knew my son, you’d sign the petition for a meningitis B vaccination | Claire Shala
It gathered momentum after the parents of Faye Burdett, from Maidstone, shared pictures of her dying from meningitis B on social media. The clamour for all children to be vaccinated was triggered by the decision of the parents of Faye Burdett to post pictures of their daughter before she contracted meningitis B and as she struggled with septicaemia in hospital as a result of it.
Two-year-old Faye died on Valentine’s Day after fighting the infection for 11 days. Her mother Jenny said the family had endured “a pain you cannot describe” after the toddler contracted the bug. It was heightened by ex-England rugby captain Matt Dawson, who told how his son Sam, two, battled and survived a form of meningitis for which there is a successful vaccine that has brought the numbers of cases down dramatically – meningitis C.
The plight of meningitis sufferers was also raised by former England rugby captain Matt Dawson, who recounted how his two-year-old son Sam survived meningitis C. At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the backbench Tory MP Helen Whately asked David Cameron what the government is doing to respond to the campaign.
The DoH pointed out it was following guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government on the cost-effectiveness of vaccinations. It pointed out that the UK is the only country in the world to introduce a national, publicly funded meningitis B immunisation programme for babies using Bexsero. After extending his condolences to the parents of Faye Burdett, Cameron pointed out that the UK is the first country in the world to have a vaccination programme. He said that the advice was to target vaccination at younger children and that of 276 children who contracted the disease, more than 100 were under one year of age.
The statement said: “The NHS budget is a finite resource. It is therefore essential that JCVI’s recommendations are underpinned by evidence of cost-effectiveness. “I think we need to look at all the evidence carefully as do the expert bodies that advise us,” he said.
“Offering the vaccine outside of JCVI’s advice would not be cost-effective, and would not therefore represent a good use of NHS resources, which should be used to benefit the health and care of the most people possible. The JCVI, in its decision in March 2014, said the meningitis B vaccine, Bexsero, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), would only be cost-effective for the youngest babies – and even then only just. In 2011-12 there were 613 laboratory-confirmed cases of meningitis B in England and Wales and 33 deaths, with 10% of survivors having major disabilities.
“When any new immunisation programme is introduced, there has to be a cut-off date to determine eligibility. While this is extremely difficult for parents whose children aren’t eligible, there is no other way of establishing new programmes to target those at highest risk without introducing inequalities.” By May next year, all children under two will have been vaccinated, said the department. Within a few years all children under five will have had the jabs, if their parents want them to. Research will be conducted to test if there is an argument for vaccinating adolescents, in whom there is also a regular spike in cases.
The Bexsero vaccine is available on the NHS for babies aged two months, followed by a second dose at four months and a booster at 12 months. Parents who wish to have older children vaccinated must pay privately, although a worldwide shortage of Bexsero means stocks are low. Many parents are seeking to have their children vaccinated by private clinics. However, there is a shortage of vaccine, though the NHS programme is not affected by this. GSK has said it hopes stocks will improve by the summer.
Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline hopes to have increased stocks in the UK by the summer. The NHS programme is unaffected. A spokesman for the charity Meningitis Now continued to call for all children under five to be vaccinated immediately. He said the organisation understood the need for further data to be gathered on the duration of protection offered by Bexsero and whether vaccinating teenagers would lead to herd immunity.
“We are now two years on since the JCVI recommended this study and, whilst we are pleased to read in the government statement that there is preparatory research that has been commissioned and is under way, we still have no indication of when the full study will commence or be completed by,” he said.
“We therefore continue to call for the under-fives to be protected while we wait for the data to be gathered and because of the length of time it is taking to progress the study. We keenly await information about the process of MPs speaking to families and health experts prior to a debate in parliament. We will ensure that we continue to be the voice for people affected by this devastating disease.”
The Meningitis Research Foundation said it was disappointed by the government’s decision. It said it understood that the NHS budget was finite, but that the cost-effectiveness rules undervalue the prevention of severe illness in childhood.
“Meningitis is every parent’s nightmare. And the government’s cost-effectiveness calculations simply do not take this level of public concern into account. They must, or the MenB vaccine and future childhood vaccines for less common, severe illnesses will always face an uphill struggle,” the foundation said.