New Pneumonia jab?

[Xavielli]

Hi.

Took DD for her 4 month jabbies today and was told I would need to come back in a few weeks for the pneumonia jab when it is made available.

Anyone else heard anything about this? Care to share any information?

[Iklboo]

Is it the new pneumococcal meningitis one they've been talking about giving babies under 1 year?
My HV mentioned it might be made available in the next few months. Poor wee ones - another jab.

[Quootiepie]

I have to go back for this... dont know when though. DS is 20 weeks now and haven't heard anything...

[Xavielli]

Yeah... she said it wouldnt be introduced for a few weeks... just wondered if anyone had done any research as I am too lazy

[Monkeybar]

This is a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which used to only be given to babies with an impaired immune system and so considered to be at higher risk of getting pneumonia (and therefore the potential associated meningitis). There's a letter about it on the department of health website. It's meant to be starting in September.

I remember a campaign about this in a parenting magazine (I bought them a lot when I was preg, because of course they tell it like it is .) It had a load of pictures of children and gave the age that they got the disease and the outcome (death or disabities in most cases) and then said they were campaigning to have the jab introduced because it was an outrage that every child wasn't protected against a potentially life threatening disease.

It's such a difficult one - yes, our children should be protected against such serious diseases, but how many more jabs are they going to introduce for our little ones? I HATED taking my ds for his jabs and there's lots more to come yet!

[morocco]

hopefully out some time soon. It's not just pneumonia it protects against (that's what I thought it stood for) but meningitis and septicaemia. They've been giving it to kids in other western countries for a while now but the Uk is slow to catch up.
more info here

[LaDiDaDi]

Sorry I can't do links very well but please look at the thread earlier this month entitled Pneumococcal vax!?! I think it's really important.