Tees Valley pharmacist urging young people to get Meningitis B vaccine
Year 13 leavers and under-25s are now eligible for a two-dose jab this summer
Young people across the Tees Valley are being urged to get vaccinated for meningitis B before heading off to university this summer.
It follows a major outbreak last year which led to over 300 cases in England.
Year 13 leavers and under-25s are now eligible for a two-dose jab which they can get from pharmacies.
Pete Horrocks is a community pharmacist in the Tees Valley and he said: "This is what can happen when we socialise, particularly groups of young people who often come together at a university setting in shared accommodation or socialising. And when people mix, that's when viruses, bacterias and germs can spread because there's a mixture of people's different levels of immunity.
"Thinking about the vaccination that's on offer, the meningitis B, it's now targeted at this summer's period to hopefully be able to offer that vaccination to the students and young people to get them vaccinated before going away as they may do in September, so it's very, very timely important to do this now.
"There's actually a lot of different types of meningitis; there's bacterial and viral meningitis and what we're offering now is actually the meningitis B vaccination, which is around group B bacteria. Young people will have also been offered a meningitis ACWY earlier on in their lives, because that's commonly given to children when they're about 13 or 14.
"When an infection is present, people can suffer with the typical meningitis rash, that non-blanching rash. It can be fever, confusion, headache, and the significance is these are all very sudden symptoms. So if somebody's feeling significantly unwell, it is vitally important that you get medical intervention and attention urgently.
"Meningitis is a rare condition, fortunately. However, it is a very serious condition if it presents. Worst case scenario, it can cause death, but otherwise it can cause other things such as loss of limbs, loss of hearing and loss of sight, so there is a lot of serious consequences if it does present.
"And as we unfortunately heard earlier on in the year, the outbreak that was in Kent is absolutely why the Government has launched this campaign.
"Stock has been sent out to pharmacies, so people have started vaccinating already. Although not all pharmacies will have all the stock immediately, so we do have a little bit of time to play with to try and get the vaccinations done.
"If the pharmacy doesn't have any stock, it's likely that they will have stock in the next few days or weeks, so there's a steady stream of stock coming to the pharmacies.
"This vaccine has been used since 2015 as part of the routine childhood immunisation so all children who receive their vaccinations as babies, up until the age of 10 or 12 now, have already had this vaccination, so it is a safe and effective vaccination that is widely used across the UK."
You can book and find out more on the NHS website.