Mother of meningitis B victim pleads for vaccine

The mother of a teenage girl left severely disabled by meningitis is pleading with the Government to introduce the meningitis B vaccine as part of the childhood immunisation programme.

Stephanie Casey’s daughter Emily, who cannot walk and is brain-damaged, contracted meningococcal B meningitis and septicaemia (MenB) when she was four.

Ms Casey, who lives in Dalkey, Co Dublin, said her daughter’s courage was inspiring but they wished there had been a vaccine to prevent her illness.