Vaccination scheme to target at-risk children

A VACCINATION against pneumococcal disease, which claims 130 lives in Ireland every year, is expected to be included in the country’s childhood immunisation scheme.

It is believed that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has found enough evidence to recommend the introduction of the vaccine.

The NIAC has been considering whether to make the vaccination available for all at-risk young children for over five years.

A new report just published by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) in Ireland has concluded that the introduction of a vaccination programme would be a good idea.

The NCPE, which is funded by the Department of Health and Children, found that a vaccination programme could be considered highly cost-effective in the Irish healthcare setting, if viewed in terms of the “herd immunity” effect.

According to the latest issue of the Irish Medical News, the NIAC is expected to give the go-ahead for the introduction of the vaccine when it meets on Wednesday.

Young children in Britain are now being routinely vaccinated against pneumococcal disease that can cause serious illness including meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia.

It is also responsible for less serious illnesses such as middle ear infection and bacterial sinusitis.

And children who survive pneumococcal meningitis suffer more severe after-effects including deafness, neurological damage, behavioural problems and seizures.

British paediatrician Dr David McIntosh found that 132 deaths and 1,183 cases of serious invasive pneumococcal disease could be prevented in Ireland every year if children were routinely vaccinated.

Meningitis Trust manager Carole Nealon was delighted that a positive decision from the NIAC on the vaccination now seemed imminent.

Just over a year ago the Meningitis Trust launched a campaign calling for the introduction of the vaccine.

Last week the campaign group urged parents all over the country to lobby their TDs on the issue.

“It is up to all of us to make them care at the ballot box,” the organisation stressed.

Ms Nealon said the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of pneumococcal vaccination had convinced many countries including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Mexico and a number of other EU countries to routinely protect all children against the potentially deadly disease.

She pointed out that a number of parents whose children contracted the disease were actively campaigning for the introduction of the vaccine because they did not want other parents to have to experience the terror they did.