14 yr old with letter from school for dip, tetanus, meningitis c etc booster

[PJ67]

Hi. My son has brought this letter home but as he had all the injections as a younger child I assumed he was immune. Some websites I've looked up say lifelong immunity with the infant course of jabs so now I'm confused as to why more are being introduced?

I was talking to someone about this a couple of days ago. According to the woman, boosters are being offered as the originals have been found not to give the length of immunity they promised.
Should my DD bring a letter home like that, she'll be baring her arm at the earliest opportunity.
Bear in mind, it could be BS from the woman. She is a receptionist at the local GPs.

I'd go for the booster. But then there were meningitis outbreaks at my school and university. One of my male friends didn't have any jabs and he ended up in hospital for quite a while with meningitis. He was very lucky. Several other people were very ill as well.

This is not new - the immunisation programme has always had a booster at age 14/15 - there's no change there from the normal run of things - my eldest two in their 20s both had these boosters and it was always part of the planned programme.

We had the same & I think they had boosters at school.

I had my boosters at school and I'm 25 now. It's normal and I would definitely reccomend it. Like Donna (awesome NN!) said, meningitis happens. A kid from my school died from meningitis in 2005 and he hadn't had his booster. Not worth the risk imo!

I think the Tetanus vaccination used to give immunity for 10 years, so a booster at this point would make sense. I was pleased to find that the advice has changed to 5 vaccinations in your lifetime for lifelong immunity when I was bitten by a stray cat!

I had a dip/tet and polio booster at secondary school in 1992. My sister and brother had one aged 14 or 15 in the 80s. It's not new.

It's normal to have a boosters for those things at 14 or 15. Mt children are 26,25 and 22 and they all had these boosters at that age so it's not a new thing, You need a tetanus booster every 10 years.

Get the boosters. The schedule sounds normal. Mine have all needed boosters iirc, and forms for summer camp activities have always asked if their tetanus jabs were up to date or to provide the date of their last tetanus shot. Oldest is now 23, and youngest (12) will shortly be having her boosters.

They all needed meningitis before they headed off to university too.

The Dip/tet/polio booster has been standard for 14-15year olds for years. The MenC is new this year.

These jabs have been done for years. They are/used to be called school leavers jabs - but obviously teenagers don't leave school at 14 any more. DS had his, but letter came direct to the house and we had to make an appointment for the GP practice to do them - they weren't offered through school.

DS had the letter just after he got back after the summer holidays and had the jabs in school a couple of weeks ago.

As the menigitis C jab was introduced in UK in autumn 1999, there's a fair chance that 15 yos haven't had it at all.

Definitely worth it for that reason alone.