Meningitis C Vaccine
Thank you for all your time and excellent work and rest assured that if myself or family or friends require any legal help in the future I will refer them to yourselves.
Michael, Crawley
The UK was the first country to introduce the widespread use of the Meningitis C vaccine to its immunisation programme in autumn 1999. The vaccine is now routinely given to infants at 2, 3 and 4 months of age and at the same time as their early vaccines of diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), Hib and oral polio.
In addition, a "catch-up" campaign was carried out between November 1999 and December 2000 for older children to receive the vaccine with the aim that all children under 18 would receive the Meningitis C jab.
The vaccine aims to protect against meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia. In the UK, B and C types of meningitis are the most common. Group C accounted for 40% of the cases in the UK at the time the vaccine was introduced.
In June 2000, concern was raised via the media about the number of reactions to the vaccine. Some 16,527 adverse reactions from 7,742 patients had been reported by GPs to the Medicines Control Agency through the Yellow Card reporting system. As well as reactions at the site of the injection such as swelling and soreness were other long-term reports which included seizures and 12 deaths.
The Yellow card reporting system is not routinely used by most GPs and healthcare professionals and as such the figures for adverse reactions are likely to be an underestimate. Despite the known under-reporting, the number of adverse reactions reported for Meningitis C vaccine is the highest for any vaccine within the UK immunisation programme.
We have been contacted by families whose children appear to have suffered severe long term health problems following Meningitis C vaccination. The number of enquiries is growing and we will be seeking funding from the Legal Services Commission to investigate these cases.
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