Harvey Parry survived meningitis B, but lives with a disability. Now children are to be given a jab to protect against it – provided the government can negotiate a price with manufacturer Novartis.
The vaccine will be given to babies at two months, with a one-off catch-up programme for those aged three and four months – a move campaigners said would save “thousands of lives”.
Under pressure from charities and senior doctors, the Department of Health’s independent advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has agreed to adopt the Bexsero vaccine after calling for more evidence in 2013.
The JCVI said last July the vaccine was not a cost-effective use of NHS money “at any price” and could not be recommended, while also calling for further evidence.
Scientists, charities and leading doctors mounted a campaign which persuaded the JCVI to recommend that the vaccine should be available on the NHS if costs can be agreed with the manufacturer, Novartis. The Department of Health is to start negotiations with Novartis as soon as possible.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor John Watson said: “Infants under one year of age are most at risk of meningitis B and the number of cases peak at around five or six months of age.
“With early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment, most make a full recovery. But it is fatal in about one in 10 cases and can lead to long-term health problems such as amputation, deafness, epilepsy and learning difficulties.”
Steve Dayman, founder of the charity Meningitis Now, whose baby son Spencer died from meningitis B in 1982, said: “This is the most monumental announcement in the fight against the disease in the 31 years I have campaigned to eradicate meningitis.
“There is no doubt that it will save thousands of lives and spare survivors and their families the pain of living with life-changing after-effects.”
Around 1,870 people are estimated to contract meningitis B each year in the UK.
The Bexsero vaccine, approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2012, is estimated to cover around 88 per cent of meningitis B disease.
Meningitis B is most common in children under five and, in particular, babies under the age of one.
Initial signs and symptoms in babies and children include a high fever with cold hands and feet, feeling agitated and not wanting to be touched, continuous crying or excessive sleepiness and difficulty in waking.
Children may also appear confused and unresponsive. A major, and late-stage, warning sign is a blotchy red rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it.
Professor Andrew Pollard, chairman of the JCVI, said: “After very careful consideration, JCVI concluded that use of the new vaccine would reduce cases of meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia and lead to a reduction in deaths, limb amputations and brain injury caused by the disease.”