Infant hospitalised with first case of meningococcal B in Tasmania this year

The argument favouring free meningococcal B vaccines has heated up again after a baby was admitted to hospital with the common strain in the state’s second case of the deadly disease this year.

The infant has been taken to Launceston General Hospital. Picture: SUPPLIED

THE argument favouring free meningococcal B vaccines has heated up again after a baby was admitted to hospital with the common strain in the state’s second case of the deadly disease this year.

The nine-month-old baby was last night recovering at the Launceston General Hospital. The diagnosis came after a Huon Valley man in his late 60s was treated for W strain last month.

Meningococcal B is the only common strain of the disease that isn’t part of a vaccination program. Each dose costs about $120 on private prescription and up to four doses can be required per person.

Dr Bastian Seidel from the Huon Valley Health Centre. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Huon Valley GP practice owner and clinical professor at the University of Tasmania Bastian Seidel last night told the Mercury it was “inconceivable” that a family should have to pay more than $1000 to be protected. Dr Seidel called for common sense to prevail over cost concerns.

“People want to do the right thing and protect themselves but they’re being financially penalised,” he said.

“Vaccinations save lives, there’s no doubt about it, so what are we waiting for? More children to die? More people to suffer? For the public health system to be stretched even further?

“The community don’t care if it’s funded by the Federal or State Government, they rightly expect that they’re going to be protected from any deadly disease in 2019.”

There were five cases of W strain, two cases of Y strain and four cases of B strain in the state last year. Coroner Simon Cooper last month recommended the state’s vaccination program be extended to include protection against the B strain after an inquest into the death of 16-year-old Sarah Rose Beltz, who died last July after contracting meningococcal W.

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The Australian Immunisation Handbook “strongly recommends” infants and children under two, healthy teenagers aged 15-19 and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people aged two months to 19 years receive the meningococcal B vaccine.

It also suggests people with medical conditions that increase their risk of invasive meningococcal disease, young adults living in close quarters and smokers get the jab.

Despite the wide-ranging recommendations for the immunisation, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has not been satisfied with the evidence surrounding the effectiveness of vaccine Bexsero as part of a population-wide program.

The state-funded meningococcal ACWY vaccination campaign has been the most successful mass immunisation program in the state’s history, with almost 75 per cent of Tasmanians aged between six weeks and 21 years covered.

South Australia is the only state nationally to fund meningococcal B vaccines.

Australian Medical Association Tasmania president John Burgess said government-funded vaccinations needed to be supported by scientific evidence.
“Science and evidence should be the determinant of whether a vaccination is made available routinely,” he said.

“That evidence should be regularly re-evaluated in light of the disease prevalence in the community and the efficacy of the commercially available vaccinations.”

State-funded meningococcal vaccines for the ACWY strains are still available for those aged between 6 weeks and 20 years of age, while stocks last, from GPs.

The meningococcal ACWY vaccine is also funded under the National Immunisation Program for babies turning one.

From this month, this vaccine will be offered to those in Year 10 who have not previously been immunised, through the school-based immunisation program.

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