Babies offered new meningitis vaccine

BRITAIN IS to become the first country in the world to launch a new vaccine against meningitis.

The vaccine will end the "reign of terror" caused by one strain - Group C infections - which cause 1,500 cases of meningitis and 150 deaths a year, Professor Liam Donaldson, the Government's Chief Medical Officer, said.

Meningitis strikes with unnerving speed and ferocity and mainly affects babies and teenagers. The new vaccine, against Group C infections, is being launched a year earlier than expected and will initially be directed towards the groups at greatest risk - babies under one and teenagers aged 15 to 17. The vaccination programme is due to begin in October, in time to prevent the seasonal winter surge in cases.

Professor Donaldson said: "It's a major breakthrough. It has come a year ahead of what was expected and will end the reign of terror Group C meningococcal infections have wrought on the population."

Cases of meningitis have been rising sharply in recent years and Group C infections have risen fastest, although the cause is not understood. They are often associated with school outbreaks and have caused more deaths in recent years than Group B infections.

The new vaccine has been tested on 4,500 British schoolchildren and 21,000 children and adults outside the UK. It has been found to give long- term protection and to cause no serious side-effects. It is being compared to the vaccine against Hib meningitis, introduced in 1992, which has virtually eliminated cases of that strain of the disease.

Three companies are preparing to supply the new vaccine, which is expected to be made available to children aged between one and five next year and, later, to 15 million children across the country.

Announcing the development in the Commons yesterday, Frank Dobson, the Secretary of State for Health, said: "Meningitis fills parents with fear because it can arrive out of the blue and bring a healthy child to death's door in a few hours. This new vaccine will help reduce the incidence of meningitis but it won't bring it to an end. Sadly, development of a vaccine to counter Group B meningococcal infection is still some years away."

Outbreaks of Group C infection have occurred among first- year students, especially those living in halls of residence, in recent years. Mr Dobson said that because students starting university this autumn would not be covered by the new vaccine, they are to be offered the existing vaccine. Mr Dobson gave no details of the cost of the programme but promised it would be centrally funded.

Asked if it was cost effective, he replied that health economists and officials had looked at it and delivered their verdict but he had made the decision to go ahead.

"As far as I'm concerned it was worth doing," he said.

Last night the Government admitted that vaccines for tuberculosis and boosters for diphtheria and tetanus were in short supply. Mr Dobson called in senior representatives of the vaccine industry last week to tell them their repeated failure to supply the vaccines was "totally unacceptable", his department said.