The Government rejects Meningitis vaccine petition.

After one mother’s story about her child’s battle with meningitis went viral, more than 815,000 people signed a petition for the vaccine to be offered to all children.

In a bid to prevent any more children losing their lives to the deadly disease, the petition called for all children to be vaccinated, not just newborn babies. 

The petition was the biggest one of its kind in parliamentary history, however, the Department of Health have rejected the call to offer children up to at least 11 the jab.

Parents of two – year- old Faye Burdett shared a hard-hitting picture of their daughter dying in hospital of the disease which caused the petition to gain momentum, however, the Government seem to think this would be too expensive and are instead going to continue to focus on the children who they feel are most at risk.

The DOH released this statement: ‘Offering the vaccine outside of JCVI’s advice would not be cost-effective, and would not therefore represent a good use of NHS resources, which should be used to benefit the health and care of the most people possible.

“When any new immunisation programme is introduced, there has to be a cut-off date to determine eligibility. While this is extremely difficult for parents whose children aren’t eligible, there is no other way of establishing new programmes to target those at highest risk without introducing inequalities.”

The vaccine is currently available on the NHS for babies aged two months, a second dose at four month and then a booster dose at 12 months.

Parents who wish to have their children vaccinated outside of the age restriction must pay privately.

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