EVERY child aged 17 or under in East Lancashire is set to be offered vaccination against a virulent strain of meningitis, it was revealed today.

Public health officials will begin their mass immunisation programme of the meningitis C vaccine, involving 130,000 youngsters, on November 8, when teenagers aged between 15 and 17 will be the first group to be offered the jab.

But East Lancashire Health Authority is aiming to complete the huge number of vaccinations by next July.

The news comes after four-year-old Timothy Haworth, of Blackburn, died of meningitis in Pendlebury Children's Hospital, Manchester, yesterday . Laboratory tests have not yet confirmed which strain of the disease he died from. A three-month-old baby boy from Accrington is also recovering in Blackburn Infirmary after he was struck down by suspected meningitis. But the fight against the disease will be boosted when the meningitis C vaccine is phased into the vaccination programme.

East Lancashire teenagers aged between 15 and 17 are considered the highest risk group and will be the first to be offered the vaccine.

From November 29, babies will be offered the vaccine when they visit their doctor for their routine diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough, polio and Hib (influenza B) jabs at aged two, three and four months.

The vaccine will then be offered to children who receive their first MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) jab at about 13 months.

Public health officials will then launch a catch-up programme in the New Year so other toddlers and schoolchildren up to the age of 15 are offered the vaccine. Everybody under 17 will be offered the jab although it will not be compulsory and some concern has been expressed that it will add to the cocktail of vaccines that a child's tender immune system already has to cope with. Dr Roberta Marshall, consultant in communicable disease control for East Lancashire Health Authority, said: "The aim is to immunise everybody under 17 by next July.

"Meningitis C accounts for about 40 per cent of all cases and is the most likely cause when there is an outbreak which involves a cluster of cases."

The vaccine will not protect people against the meningitis B strain of the disease.

But health officials are hoping that the new vaccine will go a long way to eradicating the disease in a similar way that immunisation programmes have almost wiped out meningococcal infection in other countries, including Cuba.

EVERY child aged 17 or under in East Lancashire is set to be offered vaccination against a virulent strain of meningitis, it was revealed today.

Public health officials will begin their mass immunisation programme of the meningitis C vaccine, involving 130,000 youngsters, on November 8, when teenagers aged between 15 and 17 will be the first group to be offered the jab.

But East Lancashire Health Authority is aiming to complete the huge number of vaccinations by next July.

The news comes after four-year-old Timothy Haworth, of Blackburn, died of meningitis in Pendlebury Children's Hospital, Manchester, yesterday . Laboratory tests have not yet confirmed which strain of the disease he died from.

A three-month-old baby boy from Accrington is also recovering in Blackburn Infirmary after he was struck down by suspected meningitis.

But the fight against the disease will be boosted when the meningitis C vaccine is phased into the vaccination programme.

East Lancashire teenagers aged between 15 and 17 are considered the highest risk group and will be the first to be offered the vaccine.

From November 29, babies will be offered the vaccine when they visit their doctor for their routine diptheria-tetanus-whooping cough, polio and Hib (influenza B) jabs at aged two, three and four months.

The vaccine will then be offered to children who receive their first MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) jab at about 13 months.

Public health officials will then launch a catch-up programme in the New Year so other toddlers and schoolchildren up to the age of 15 are offered the vaccine. Everybody under 17 will be offered the jab although it will not be compulsory and some concern has been expressed that it will add to the cocktail of vaccines that a child's tender immune system already has to cope with.

Dr Roberta Marshall, consultant in communicable disease control for East Lancashire Health Authority, said: "The aim is to immunise everybody under 17 by next July.

"Meningitis C accounts for about 40 per cent of all cases and is the most likely cause when there is an outbreak which involves a cluster of cases."

The vaccine will not protect people against the meningitis B strain of the disease. But health officials are hoping that the new vaccine will go a long way to eradicating the disease in a similar way that immunisation programmes have almost wiped out meningococcal infection in other countries, including Cuba.

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