Meningitis in teens

[bevelino]

Has anyone encouraged dc to have meningitis immunisation before uni?

A friend of ours teen contracted meningitis during her first term at uni and it was only by the grace of God and pure luck that she was discovered in her room in time.

[bojorojo]

Mine both had vaccination done well before university! Yes, do it. Meningitis outbreaks do happen at university so anything you can do to avoid this is sensible. I thought everyone had the vaccination these days. It is safe and effective I believe.

[ssd]

ds is getting it at school soon

[bevelino]

Do we ask GP to give the immunisation or will we need to pay for it, which we will do if needed?

[harridan50]

Should get letter from gp or done at school.

[ssd]

not sure, best to ring your gp practice tomorrow they will know. ds getting it from school but he did get a letter saying it was available, think it was from the gp but not sure.

[rightsaidfrederickII]

GP will do it for free - they're quite keen to (assuming they haven't had it before)

[LIZS]

School wrote referring us to gp. Seems odd as they offer hpv and boosters in school. Is it the same dose for teens as babies, in which case will there now be a run on it?

[Jugglingballs65]

They have to get it done at the GP.
DD had it done before she went to uni.
we didnt have to pay. Think she had two , a few weeks apart.
My DB had meningitis at Uni many years ago but luckily his flatmate took him to the GP who called an ambulance. The Dr on duty at the hospital recognised it straight away as his friend had died from it.
DB ended up on dialysis as his kidneys packed up and it was touch and go for a while. He is now married with two dc.
It is not unusual at uni particularly where foreign students may not have been vacinated so please get your dc vacinated before they go even if you have to pay.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Think dd just contacted the gp last summer.

[Rummikub]

It's being offered in year 9 in dc school. Meningitis/ septicaemia. Think it's called something like AWCY?

[Rummikub]

ACWY

[ssd]

what age is year 9?

[Rummikub]

NHS leaflet about the vaccine.

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/438674/PHE_9268_MenW_leaflet_2015_8pages_09_web_cr.pdf

[Rummikub]

12-13 years old

[MrSlant]

What year is your DC? My Yr 11 is being offered the ACWY this year even though he had the other one in Y9 as they have identified the new strains and want to vaccinate against them too. Do you have a school nurse you could contact?

[bevelino]

My 4 dds have not been offered the vaccine and they are at 3 different schools. Therefore I will ask GP tomorrow. The only teens I have personally known who have contracted meningitis have been at university. One student was found in time and the other student was not so lucky.

[Rummikub]

From the leaflet linked above: looks like depends on area and year.

When will I get the vaccination?
It’s recommended that all teenagers in school years 10 to 13 have the MenACWY vaccination before or soon after they leave school. The catch – up programme will start in August 2015 and end in around October 2017. With so many pupils to vaccinate, the programme will be rolled out gradually, with year 13 pupils offered the vaccine first. These older teenagers are at greatest risk of the disease especially when starting university where they will come into contact with many new people of a similar age.
In addition, all year 9 students (and year 10 students in some areas) will be offered the MenACWY vaccine routinely instead of the MenC vaccine.

[Squiss]

If your DC haven't yet started uni they should get it at least 6 weeks before they go and on the NHS.

I paid for DS1 to have the ACWY privately last year. He got the MenC on the NHS before he went to university in 2014 but the ACWY is only available to new students and he is a second year. Ironically the NHS website promoting the vaccine even gave case histories of second year students who had contracted Men W.
My GP wouldn't even do it privately we had to travel some distance to get it done, it was £80.
Don't have it the day before anything important as it frequently causes a day or two of flu like symptoms.

[LIZS]

Dc were both given Men C vaccine as preschoolers , would they need a booster or is one enough for a lifetime?

[alreadytaken]

the latest vaccine covers more strains, even those who had it as children should have it now. Vaccine effectiveness also tends to diminish over time, another reason for having it done.

[HocusCrocus]

LIZ , agree with already. DS had Men C as a teen and GP still advised the Men ACWY - I would definitely get it done. I think there had been an increase in Men W recently but I may be remembering wrongly. Like others DS had a letter inviting him for it from the GP and the strong advice was get it done before university during the summer holidays and preferably 6 weeks before starting as others have said.

[HPFA]

My DD actually had the Men ACWY vaccine as a baby - she was part of a study group. At the time I think the Oxford Vaccine Group anticipated it would be more used abroad as the A, W and Y strains were not very common in the UK at the time. The W strain has since had an upsurge in the UK which is why the vaccine is now being offered more widely.

[HPFA]

My DD actually had the Men ACWY vaccine as a baby - she was part of a study group. At the time I think the Oxford Vaccine Group anticipated it would be more used abroad as the A, W and Y strains were not very common in the UK at the time. The W strain has since had an upsurge in the UK which is why the vaccine is now being offered more widely.

[LIZS]

Ok , bad mother alert just checked the email regarding the booster dd (y10) had last month and it also included the Men ACWY.