Vaccination drop puts children’s lives at risk

Expert warns over booster shots

A SHARP fall-off in the number of children being vaccinated against serious diseases is putting lives at risk, an expert has warned.

Rates for youngsters getting potentially life-saving jabs dropped in the past year, raising fears more could catch infections such as meningitis, diphtheria and whooping cough.

Consultant paediatrician and infectious disease specialist Dr Karina Butler said the uptake for the Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus and diphtheria among kids aged 11 to 14, decreased by 3% in the 2016/2017 school year to 85.5%.

Dr Butler added for the vaccines to be fully effective there needs to be an uptake of over 95% as this will ensure the diseases are not spread preventing an outbreak. She told RTE’S Today With Sean O’rourke: “We are seeing a drift off in the booster shots in both the second year of life but more particularly the adolescent booster shots.

“They are shots against whooping cough, they also boost up the diptheria and tetanus levels and particularly the meningococcal C, that’s where we’ve seen the main fall-off.

“The rates have dropped off to about 84% there.

“It is concerning because to break the chain of transmission of infection in the community you need to keep your vaccination rates ideally up around 95%. When they fall we get pockets of vulnerability and people are susceptible to infection and that’s what we are beginning to see in that there is a slight increase in cases of meningococcal infection.”

Dr Butler said the vaccination rate peaked around 1999/2000 but began to decline after that period.

The national uptake for the Menc vaccine fell by 3% to 83.9% last year. Dr Butler added: “This cohort of adolescents got vaccinated in infancy and that gave them good protection during those years. But we know to keep that protection level up you have to get a booster in your teenage years. So with the drift down in immunity and the increase in circulation of the bacteria then you begin to see the increase in cases coming to light again.

“When I think back to 1999 we had 50 cases in my hospital – a child or young person very week with meningococcal infection.

“Some were very seriously ill ending up in intensive care, some lost limbs, hearing impairment and brain damage.”