UK to vaccinate children against meningitis disease

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is to introduce a new routine
vaccination for young children to help protect against
meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia in a move it says
will save lives and stop hundreds of children becoming ill each
year.

Britain’s top doctor, Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson,
said on Wednesday the jab, to be given in three doses at two
months, four months and again at 13 months, would target
pneumococcal disease, one of the most common bacterial causes
of ear infection.

“Immunisation is the best way to protect children from
serious disease and the routine childhood programme has been
extremely effective in achieving this,” Donaldson said.

About 5,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease are seen
in England and Wales each year and more than 500 of these are
in children under two, according to the government, which says
up to 50 British children under the age of two die from the
disease each year.

The third round of the new drug will be given with the MMR
jab, a vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella, or
German measles. Some doctors have suggested a possible link
between the MMR jab and cases of autism and other disorders,
but the UK government and recent research say the jab is safe.

Doctors welcomed news of the vaccination, which will be
introduced over the next year.

Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of
Bristol Medical School said the vaccine had been through
extensive safety tests and had been used without any problems
in the United States for five years.

Helen Bedford, a lecturer at the Institute of Child Health,
agreed: “The vaccine will save children’s lives as well as
prevent serious disability,” she said in a statement.

U.S. drugs company Wyeth said in a statement its Prevenar
vaccine would be used in the British immunisation programme.