Every baby will be given a jab against the most lethal form of meningitis under a shake-up of the vaccination system announced today. The pneumococcal vaccine will save up to 50 children's lives each year, and prevent hundreds of disabilities. It will be given routinely at two, four and 13 months.
Thousands more children will be protected against other serious illnesses arising from the pneumococcal infection, which include the most common bacterial form of pneumonia in children and septicaemia, which can lead to the partial amputation of children's limbs.
The vaccine, which will cost £100m in the first year and £80m each subsequent year, is expected to be introduced this year. About 650,000 babies a year will be eligible, with a catch-up programme encompassing those currently under two.
The drug, Prevenar, has been licensed for use since 2001, but the government has delayed introducing routine vaccination while its joint committee on vaccination and immunisation assessed the impact of introducing it alongside the seven jabs currently given, and an additional Hib booster also announced yesterday.
While the Department of Health denies cost has been a factor - the jab costs £34.50 at present, although the NHS has negotiated a lower price - doubts about its cost effectiveness have been allayed by the US experience, where vaccinating children has had a "herd immunity" effect - boosting immunity among parents, grandparents and the wider community.
"We have already seen the immense impact this programme has had in the US," the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said yesterday. "Since its introduction, cases in young children caused by the strains in the vaccine have fallen by 94% and cases in the over-65s have dropped by two-thirds."
David Salisbury, head of immunisation, said the cost was high because it was new and technically challenging to manufacture, but stressed: "For the expense you gain a great deal."
Invasive pneumococcal disease affects 5,000 children each year and manifests itself as serious illnessness such as meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia, as well as severe earache and sinusitis .
Pneumococcal meningitis is the second most common cause of bacterial meningitis - after meningococcal group B, for which there is no vaccine - but has the highest death rate, killing one in five children who contract it. One in six suffer brain damage and one in four become deaf.
Children are already vaccinated against meningitis C and Hib disease, which can also cause meningitis, but Sir Liam also announced two measures to boost their immunity, including an extra Hib vaccine, to be given at 12 months. The revised schedule means babies will now have 10 jabs by the time they are 13 months.
