UK vaccination experts are recommending that all teenagers be offered a free meningitis B vaccine at about age 15, a move that would broaden protection beyond the current childhood programme. The advice comes after concern over the UK’s largest and fastest-growing outbreak, which occurred in Kent earlier this year.
Under the proposal, the jab would be added routinely for secondary school-aged children, rather than being reserved mainly for babies. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says the change reflects recent evidence and replaces its earlier view that the teenage programme was neither necessary nor cost effective.
The recommendation now goes to ministers in each part of the UK, who will decide whether the NHS should fund it and how it would be delivered. If approved, people would not pay for the vaccine. The committee’s chair, Prof Wei Shen Lim, said invasive meningococcal disease is rare but serious, and noted that the group had worked with meningitis charities and considered the experiences of affected families.
The planned schedule would involve two doses for teenagers, with a single top-up dose for those who already received the vaccine as babies. That earlier infant programme has been in place for children born on or after 1 July 2015. The new recommendation is also meant to reduce the risk of spread among teenagers and young adults, where close contact such as kissing or sharing drinks or vapes can pass on infection.
MenB can lead to meningitis, sepsis, hearing loss, brain damage, amputations and, in some cases, death. Babies are already offered the vaccine because they face a higher risk of invasive infection and are less able to fight it off. Since the Kent outbreak, which involved two deaths, some parents have already chosen to pay privately for the jab for their teenage children.
Source: bbc.co.uk
