There was some good news announced recently as the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has confirmed that the Meningitis B vaccine will be available free to all newborns later this year.
The news comes after leading women’s website MummyPages.ie started an online petition to make the vaccine available to all children free of charge, the successful petition received almost 10,000 signatures in just 72-hours which prompted the Health Minister into giving a response.
According to the website Mr Varadkar TD said that the Meningitis B vaccine will now be included in the Primary Childhood Immunisation Schedule in Q4-2016.
However, unfortunately there are currently no plans to introduce a catch up programme for young babies and children who were born before this time.
According to The Health Protection Unit: “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.”