THE States is to spend £23,000 on a catch-up vaccination campaign for youngsters in the next few months. The Hib vaccine has been held responsible for a dramatic fall in the number of cases of infectious meningitis. But the UK authorities fear that some children in a 30-month window may have missed a booster and Guernsey has decided to act too.

‘Although the new programme will cost £23,000, in this case we believe it is money very well invested,’ said Health minister Peter Roffey.

‘The department’s budget is extremely stretched at present.

‘However, vaccination offers excellent ﾓvalue for moneyﾔ in health terms, and if even one case of serious or possibly fatal illness is prevented, the campaign pays for itself many times over.

‘We realise that many families will move to Guernsey from the UK, while Guernsey students may go there for part of their education.

‘It is therefore very important that the two jurisdictions maintain the same immunisation schedules.’

Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) is a serious bacterial infection, which can cause meningitis, septicaemia, epiglotitis and pneumonia.

It can be fatal, especially in younger children, and it can leave serious residual impairments among those who survive.

The Hib vaccine has been routinely given as part of the childhood immunisation programme for infants, at the age of two, three and four months, since 1992.

In 2003, a ‘catch up’ programme of Hib vaccine was offered in both Guernsey and England to all children who were then aged six months to four years.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) now advises that children born between 13 March 2003 and 30 September 2005 would have been too young to have had a booster as part of the 2003 ‘catch up’ programme and too old to have received the new Hib/Men C vaccine at 12 months of age.

As a result, the UK Department of Health has announced a Hib vaccination ‘catch up’ programme for all the above children, starting next.

Guernsey’s own immunisation advisory group has looked at the local data, and agreed that local children between those ages, resident in Guernsey and Alderney, would also benefit.

Families with children born between 13 March 2003 and 30 September 2005 will soon be receiving notices from Child Health Services, informing them of the campaign and offering the vaccination as part of the usual ‘pre-school’ checks.

It is also expected that the campaign will be publicised through the national media and will include television commercials.