Varadkar says Meningitis B vaccine will only be offered to babies
The MenB, or Meningococcal B, vaccine has been getting a lot of press of late. This morning it's become the subject of some very significant news thanks to the power of an online petition, but the campaign is far from over.
Children in the Republic of Ireland can currently only receive the MenB vaccine – which protects against the leading bacterial cause of meningitis and septicaemia – privately, meaning it can incur costs of up to €280 or more.
Over the last number of weeks, Irish parenting site MummyPages has been petitioning for the MenB vaccine to be available for free to all children in the Republic of Ireland, and last night Minister for Health Leo Varadkar revealed funding had been allocated for it to be rolled out this year.
.@MummyPages @LauraHaughMummy Men B vaccinations start this year. Funding is allocated & deal currently being negotiated with producer
— Leo Varadkar (@campaignforleo) 24 February 2016
"Men B vaccinations start this year. Funding is allocated & deal currently being negotiated with producer," he wrote in a tweet to MummyPages' mum-in-residence Laura Haugh.
However, there are NO PLANS to introduce a catch up programme for young babies and children who were born before this time.
“The introduction of Meningococcal B into the Primary Childhood Immunisation Schedule in Q4 2016 is for newborns at 2, 4 and 13 months of age. There are no plans at this time to introduce a catch-up programme,” explained the Health Protection Unit
The parents of UK toddler Faye Burdett highlighted the tragic importance of vaccinating children against MenB recently, when they released photos of their two-year-old daughter before and after meningitis took hold of her, leading to her death on February 14, 2016.
Babies in the UK are now vaccinated against MenB, but the changes to policy came in too late to save Faye.
Irish children currently routinely receive the MenC vaccine, but the same weight is not applied to MenB, despite it being the biggest cause of infant illness in this country.
If you want to add your voice to the MummyPages campaign, you can do so by signing the petition here.
