PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINE- PV FOR SHORT

[HAPPYFACE]

Just read about a PVvaccine in BELLA magazine, it was licensed in Feb 2001 but obviously not been included in our vaccination programme yet. America have had it a while. I rang meningitis trust who said they knew about it and you can get it privately cost about £120, only roughly 600 children in UK affected yearly, but what if it was your child and you knew you could have prevented it?
Does anyone know of the vaccine above and where to get it, I've rang Direct Health 2000 and they don't have it~(my dd having single MMR vaccines with them)

I have had both my children vaccinated with it as we travel frequently to the usa and it is on the list of "required" vaccines. I had my ds done (rather late) in the usa. My dd was done on schedule partially in the uk and partially in the usa. The first two jabs were done at enormous expense by a private paediatrician (working out of the Portland) as it wasn't yet available on the nhs at all. The third jab was done in the usa and the 4th was done by my gp's for free as long as I paid for the medicine (£40) as it is now available on the nhs for certain high risk groups (low immune, etc.). It is an expensive vaccine so it may be some time before it's available for all on the nhs. Apart from preventing certain strains of meningitis, the vaccine is supposed to help prevent ear infections. In the caseof my ds there was a noticeable difference. He had an ear infection with every cold (8 or so in his first year) and after getting the 2nd jab (out of 2 in his case as it was done later on) he didn't get another ear infection for almost a year. I would suggest asking your gp nicely and offering to pay for the medicine if they do the jabbing. It will save you lots of money. (It takes a week or two to order it up as they don't keep it in stock).

My second DS had pneumococcal meningitis at 6 months old and nearly died. Thankfully he recovered fully. There are so many illnesses that children and adults can get that I think it is impossible to be vaccinated against them all wthout some insult to your immune system. Even though DS did have it, I am not sure about vaccination for all.

Thanks SofiaAmes, I'LL TRY GP. Direct Health did ask that I send them a copy of the magazine article, probably best I do since hardly anyone seems to have heard of this.

happyface - I have the pneumococcal vaccine myself as I am missing my spleen and therefore have a compromised immune system and the type of infections that PV prevents would have particularly severe consequences for me. The jab has been around for a long time (I had my first about 12 years ago), but I hope it does not become a required vaccine for children here. It is a strong one, and I feel, like with the flu jab, that it should only be offered to people who have a suppressed immune system for any reason. Perhaps for older children who have recurrent problems with this type of infection (like sophiaames' ds with his ear infections), it might be a reasonable solution, but it does not protect against all strains of meningitis by any means and I think a healthy baby should be left to build up a natural resistance if possible, before bombarding them with more jabs.

The jab for babies is a completely different one than the one for adults. It prevents against some of the most common strains of meningitis.