Meningitis jab chaos killed our lovely girl
THE grieving mother of an 18-year-old student who died within weeks of starting university says hundreds of thousands of students are unprotected against meningitis because of the ‘complete failure’ of a government vaccination programme.
Lauren Sandell was struck down by the illness shortly after beginning a course at Bournemouth University in October 2016. She returned home and died in front of her mother and younger brother.
Lauren should have been offered a jab to protect her against meningitis in the months before her death, but staff at The Broadway Surgery in Woodford Green, Essex, missed numerous opportunities to give her the vaccine, a recent inquest heard.
Lauren’s mother Sharon Sandell, 48, last night hit out at officials who decided GPs should be responsible for the campaign to inoculate older teens with the new ‘MenACWY’ jab, rather than schools. She said: ‘Not one child should have died, or been made disabled, since the new vaccine became available in autumn 2015. But the programme to vaccinate teenagers has been a massive failure.’
Since the MenACWY vaccine was introduced, children aged 13 to 14 have been vaccinated in schools, with almost 90 per cent of pupils receiving it. Public Health England (PHE) also launched a ‘catch-up’ campaign for those born between September 1996 and August 1999 – including Lauren – but with many of these pupils having left school, gave the vaccination role to GPs.
A report in January said only 40 per cent of those eligible have had it, meaning up to a million young people have not. Mrs Sandell said: ‘PHE should never have made GP surgeries responsible. It’s shocking that those children who could have been weren’t vaccinated in school like the younger age group. The level of take-up from the GP-led campaign has been dreadful.’
North East London coroner Nadia Persaud said: ‘If Lauren had received the vaccination, it is likely her death... would have been avoided.’ A PHE spokesman said: ‘A vaccine uptake of around 40 per cent has had a significant impact on the rates of disease.’
NHS Redbridge, which The Broadway Surgery reports to, said it was ‘taking action with the practice, including ensuring that all the recommendations made by the coroner are fully met’.