MenB vaccine finally arrives
New Zealand finally has a vaccination for its most-common form of killer meningococcal disease.
Pharmac confirmed yesterday that its clinical advisers recommended funding the universal vaccination for infants and highrisk groups with meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine Bexsero – but quite when or if it would come into effect remained to be seen.
But the drug’s maker confirmed it was now available for purchase in New Zealand.
Meningitis Foundation director Andrea Brady was certain the arrival of Bexsero in New Zealand would save lives. Why it had taken so long for a vaccine to reach New Zealand was a question for the drug makers and the Government, she said.
The Ministry of Health has approved the use of Bexsero and the vaccine’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has applied for Pharmac to fund it.
While Stuff was making inquiries about the vaccine yesterday, Pharmac’s website updated to say it recommended funding Bexsero for all infants as well as high-risk groups. This had a medium priority but quite when – or if – it would come into effect was not clear.
Meanwhile, GSK confirmed the vaccine could now be launched in New Zealand, meaning it was available for purchase by all. Brady said New Zealand had a targeted MenB vaccine after a mid-2000s outbreak in Northland but nothing was available nationally.
Vaccinations for other strains – one specifically for the C strain, and a combined one for strains A, C, Y and W – were available but only for those willing to pay, though it was funded for highrisk groups.
‘‘The best way of preventing a disease is though vaccination,’’ Brady said. ‘‘One death is one death too many. We have had six deaths from meningococcal W in the past year.’’
To Levin’s Mark Gallagher, spending $300 to get vaccines sent over from Australia for his teenage sons was a no-brainer.
Losing a daughter to meningitis will do that.
It was Sunday, July 22, 2012, when daughter Letitia, 18, and her boyfriend came for dinner. She had a temperature and flulike symptoms. The doctor the next day did all the proper tests.
‘‘The doctor called the next morning to see how she was doing. I had to tell her Tesh passed away.’’
On Monday night, after seeing the doctor, Letitia went to bed with a headache. By 3am she was incoherent and vomiting. Her flatmate called her parents at 4am. By 5.30am they were at Palmerston North Hospital and at 8.30am doctors said there was nothing more they could do.
‘‘It went straight to her brain.’’ Now Mark and Tesh’s mother, Lisa, are taking some good from the bad. Mark Gallagher knows that getting the Government to fully fund all meningococcal vaccines is a pipedream but even if they were partially funded, it would be a step.
And if only more people knew how many strains they needed to be vaccinated against, it would be massive, he said.
The MenB vaccine needed to be released urgently, he said.
Letitia got a meningococcal vaccination at school – ‘‘we thought it covered everything’’ – but it did not cover the C strain that killed her.
Ministry of Health public health director Caroline McElnay said it had a contingency stock of about 100 doses of MenB vaccine in case of an outbreak. It was obtained in 2017, before Bexsero was approved.
According to the ministry, there were 112 cases of meningococcal disease last year and 96 already this year.
The B strain was the most common but the even-deadlier W strain was on the rise.