Meningitis B Vaccination

Meningitis B vaccinations will be included in the Primary Childhood Immunisation Schedule (PCIS) for all children born on or after 1 October 2016. However, the HSE have confirmed that there will be no catch-up programme. 

Children born before 1 October 2016 will have to be vaccinated outside the PCIS system, which means opting to pay privately for this service from your GP.

Galway Bay Medical Centre are offering a private vaccination service to cover this cohort of children. 

The minimum age for vaccination is 2 months.

If you are interested in having your children vaccinated please send us an email and our Nurse will contact you to make an appointment.

The vaccine (Bexero) has been in short supply for the past few months and may become so again. See top of the page for most recent stock updates.

Why do we need a Meningitis B vaccine?

For decades, MenB has been the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in the UK and Ireland. Vaccines are the only way to prevent meningitis and have almost eliminated some other kinds of meningitis.

Since the first meningitis vaccine was introduced against Hib meningitis in 1992, many kinds of meningitis have been reduced or have dwindled to a mere handful of cases, including Hib, MenC and Pneumococcal.

Thanks to meningitis vaccines, thousands of children are alive today who would otherwise have died from these deadly diseases.

Developing a MenB vaccine has been much more difficult – until now, protection against MenB has been a distant possibility.

Meanwhile, meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia remain the leading infectious cause of death for children under five in the UK.

How effective is this vaccine?

The effectiveness of a vaccine is determined by many things, including how strong an immune response it produces (its ‘immunogenicity’), and how widely it covers disease-causing strains circulating in the country.
Results from the vaccine trials are very encouraging, showing that the vaccine triggers a strong immune response in infants, toddlers and adolescents.
Studies of circulating MenB strains looking at how well they match the vaccine have predicted that it will cover approximately 88% of MenB circulating in the UK, and 78% of MenB in Europe over all.
The actual proportion of cases prevented will depend on other things too, including how widely the vaccine is offered and taken up, whether it prevents the bacteria from being carried and passed on as well as protecting from disease, how long protection lasts, and whether it works sufficiently well in all age groups. -
 
(text above courtesy of Meningitis.org)
 

How much does the vaccine cost?

Only children not covered under the PCIS (ie, born before 1 October 2016) will need to pay for the vaccination.
 
The cost of the vaccine is €180 per shot and 2-3 shots will be required depending on the age of your child.

More Information and Useful Links

Meningitis Research Foundation
 
NHS Menigitis B information
 
Immunisations.ie
 
Health Protection Surveillance Centre

RTE News - March 2015 - Department of Health considers introduction of Men B vaccination

 

 

 

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