Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
11 million kids at risk from meningitis B
MUM’S PLEA FOR VACCINATIONS AFTER MENINGITIS B DEATH
FOUR families whose lives have been devastated by meningitis today call on the penny-pinching Government to change a moneysaving vaccinations policy and immunise ALL children under 18.
They believe their heartbreaking stories should shame the Tories into scrapping cut-off dates that mean children older than three do not qualify for an NHS jab against the deadly B strain of the disease.
It means an estimated 11 MILLION youngsters are currently unvaccinated as only babies born after the introduction of the anti-MenB Bexsero vaccine in May 2015 have been given inoculation on the NHS.
The Government says it would not be a “cost-effective” use of NHS cash to give all older children the jab retrospectively.
But grieving mum Kirsty Ermenekli has a message for them.
She and husband Ricky, both 33, had to watch six-year-old daughter Layla-Rose die of MenB. Kirsty storms: “The Government is putting a price on kids’ lives when no child’s life should come with a price.
“It terrifies me knowing how many lives are at risk. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy going through what we did that horrendous night.”
Layla-Rose died of sepsis in February last year at Royal Oldham Hospital just 24 hours after falling ill.
Haunted Kirsty says: “I picture it just before I go to sleep every night – the pillow being moved from her head as they started resuscitating her.
SCREAMED
“I was in shock. I screamed. I thought, ‘This can’t be happening to Layla.’ I was trying to wake myself up thinking it was a nightmare.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell her I loved her, to say goodbye.”
Kirsty wishes she could turn back the clock and pay for the £220 jab the Government denied her daughter.
“Had I known there was a vaccine available I’d make myself skint to do it,” she says.
Her three eldest have since been inoculated on the NHS because of what happened to their sister.
Nearly 700 children and teenagers aged over a year have contracted meningitis B since May 2015 – ending lives and leaving some survivors maimed for life.
Among then was Faye Burdett who died aged two on Valentine’s Day, 2016. Her parents Neil and Jenny, of Maidstone, Kent, released harrowing photos of the toddler ravaged by the disease as she fought for life in hospital. They had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn off her life support, after an 11-day fight for life.
An e-petition had been launched for the vaccine to be given to all children in the UK – at least up to the age of 11. And within days of tragic Faye’s pictures being published, it had 820,000 signatures, making it the most signed in Downing Street history.
But the Department of Health stood firm. It said it was following guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
A 2014 British Medical Journal report revealed the cost to the NHS of immunising only infants would be £157million a year – against more than £1billion for protecting all children, with Brexsero costing the NHS £75 per dose. “Offering the vaccine outside of JCVI’s advice would not be cost effective, and would not therefore represent a good use of NHS resources,” a DoH statement said.
In response to the petition, the Government promised a report into the cost-effectiveness of vaccinations.
In February this year, after a two year delay – it was finally published, with Public Health and Primary Care minister Steve Brine saying it was unlikely to change the Government’s policy on meningitis B.
That came as little comfort to the Georgie and Bryan Hall, 44, the parents of six-year-old Oliver who died from meningitis B last year.
They have also thrown their backing behind the vaccination campaign. Mum Georgie, 38, of Halesworth, Suffolk, said: “It’s heartbreaking because it does make you feel like it’s putting a price on your child’s life. It is going to catch up with somebody else.” Mum-of-five Julie Tuckley, from Walsall, West Mids, also joined the campaign after her son Tommy, now seven, was given just a five per cent chance of survival after getting MenB at five months old in 2011.
He is still learning to live without both legs, one arm and the fingers on
I didn’t get a chance to tell her I loved her, to say goodbye
MUM KIRSTY ON NIGHT SHE LOST HER DAUGHTER
his left hand, Julie, 43, says: “It’s disgusting the vaccine isn’t given to all children. Meningitis changed our lives completely. The day Tommy got meningitis it killed me. I had never seen anything like it.”
It’s not only MenB vaccines these parents want given to all children – there is clear evidence the C strain inoculation for 12-week-old babies needs to be brought back.
The NHS stopped it in 2016, claiming the disease had been eradicated. But new figures from Public Health England on Friday show the number of MenC cases in children under one has shot up from just one in 2015/16 to 15 in 2017/18. Mark Hunt, of the charity Meningitis Now, said: “The MenC level of increase is deeply concerning.”
Vikki Mitchell and Paul Gott saw ninemonth-old daughter Kia lose all four limbs when she contracted MenC in September last year – three months before she would have got the NHS Hib/ MenC jab. Now nearly two, Kia has 90 per cent brain damage, is registered blind and suffers from epilepsy – one of the worst MenC cases in 25 years. Vikki, 31, of Bradford said: “We’ve looked at the statistics. Since they stopped the vaccine for newborns, there’s been an increase. It is devastating families’ lives.”
Meanwhile, Kirsty says she will go private to give her youngest, seven-weekold son Enver-Jax, the MenC jab after what happened to Layla-Rose.
Charity Meningitis Now chief Dr Tom Nutt told us: “We are very conscious the Men B vaccine is not being offered to all at-risk groups.
Dr Mary Ramsay, deputy director for immunisation at Public Health England, said: “We have one of the most comprehensive meningococcal immunisation programmes in the world.
“In the UK, meningococcal disease is now very rare across all age groups.”
amy.coles@trinitymirror.com