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Article Major shake-up of the nation’s vaccination schedule

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A combination vaccine that protects against four strains of potentially deadly meningococcal disease has been approved for use in young infants in Australia.

Sunday Night shared the story of Little Jenna and her fight against meningococcal.

Jenna and her big sister, Amelia, were both immunised  but that wasn’t enough to stop other strains of the deadly disease from nearly taking her life.

She fell victim to the lesser-known B strain that requires an expensive vaccine and is only available on the private market and not subsidised by the Federal Government.

Doctors were forced to amputate her right arm below the elbow, all the fingers of her left hand, all the toes on her right foot and one kneecap.

JENNA_NEW_1

But in a major shake-up of the nation’s vaccination schedule, cases like Jenna’s could soon be a thing of the past.

Under a potential new scheme being brokered by the federal government and the country’s pharmaceutical giants, all Australian children could soon be immunised against every strain of the deadly meningococcal disease.

UPDATE 12 September

A combination vaccine that protects against four strains of potentially deadly meningococcal disease has been approved for use in young infants in Australia, reports 9 news.

Vaccine MENVEO provides immunity to strains A, C, W and Y and was approved for use in babies from the age of two months by the Therapeutics Goods Administration, pharmaceutical company GSK announced on Tuesday.

Professor Robert Booy an infectious diseases expert at Sydney University says while meningoccoccal disease is rare infants under the age of one are at greatest risk and vaccination should be encouraged.

“Notifications of meningococcal disease usually peaks in late winter and early spring, so today’s announcement is timely and gives parents a TGA-approved combination ACWY vaccine option to help protect their babies from this potentially devastating condition.”

“Protection against multiple strains is important, as the most common strains can change over time,” added Professor Booy.

It is believed all Australian children would receive free immunisations against the four deadly strains of meningococcal in one vaccination.

No further details at this time. We will update asap!

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  • Glad to see that Jenna is smiling. All vaccinations should be available and if not free, then subsidised so everyone can be immunised. Not everyone has the money to pay for immunisations.

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  • Agree with mom206279 – this vaccine should be available to all. Heard of a lady in her 60’s getting this horrible disease and dying, so we should all be able to have this vaccine. Happy to pay for it if it saves our lives and eradicates this disease like smallpox and polio were once eradicated. But everyone must be vaccinated or it will come back and bite us in the bum again.

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  • I’m all for anything that is going to help protect my family- I can’t imagine what these guys have been through!

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  • This poor family. They will be going through hell. My teen son has just received a full dose of vaccination through school to cover all the strains of meningococcal. I was so impressed and signed up right away. It was done in August and I’m so thankful.

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  • I hope Jenna will get the support and help she needs for a full recovery,wishing her and her family all the best for the future.

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  • GOOD! About time. Should have been done ages ago. And not just for kids. Everyone should have access to this!

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  • I feel so sad for her and her family. How truly terrible.

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  • Well that’s certainly a no-brainer from the parents side, why does the govt think that having the immunisation sitting there doing nothing is an ok thing to do when children like Jenna are suffering through no fault of their own – This GOVT really needs a shake up just like the immunisation schedule!

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  • Blows me away – the most lethal and the vaccine isn’t available! Typical of big pharma and government. Why don’t the media start showing the other end of the spectrum – those kids I’ve seen completely change and surprisingly end up with autism after vaccinations… would be nice to share other stories just to even out the playing field on effects of vaxing and not vaxing…….

    • Because vaccines DONT cause autism and those of us with Autism really wish you would all stop insulting us and acting like it is worse than dying from a preventable disease. Some of the greatest minds in modern history were/are autistic and without autism (which is not caused by vaccines) the world would be a duller place.

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  • Hope they do immunise all kids this is a terrible disease. What a fighter she is.

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  • It would be great to see all children have a chance to be vaccinated against all strains. Poor little kids such as Jenna wouldn’t have to go through such a traumatic experience.

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  • Aw bless ! Jenna and her parents went through a lot ! What a wee fighter she is, such a legend !!

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  • You’d think with all the vaccinations and laws around them that this extra vaccine should’ve been included! Aren’t we preparing ourselves to be healthier all round??!
    It concerns me that I found out my daughter was in a play group with unimmunized children- I thought there was, as advertised, a ‘no jab no pay’ and ‘no jab NO PLAY’ policies on tv ect for the past year but it’s all fake! Medicare/centrelink told me directly. So why spend all that money on false adverts when it should be going to critically needed vaccines for our precious children!!!!
    Get it right government!!!! Raaah.

    • There is no proof or evidence that unimmunized children spread disease.

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  • save some innocent lives and fund this! every child, person should be protected from this viciousness! this poor kid now has to go through the effects which she could have been spared from!

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  • We paid for the extra meningococcal B vaccination and after hearing a story like this I am so glad we did, and extremely grateful that we could afford it. If it’s not included on the free vaccination program it at least needs to be made more affordable so more families can access it.

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  • Poor little Jenna, saw this on the TV last night and I just cried. Such a cruel disease. Bless her and her family.

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  • Poor little sweetheart. I’ve always been terrified of this disease.

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  • Poor Jenna! This shouldn’t have happened. Here in WA there is a meningococcal vaccine program for children 15 to 19 years old. But it’s for A, C, W and Y strains. No B. Is it the same in other Australian states and territories?

    • The current vaccine only protects against non lethal strains. It is also still a trial. The fact that the lethal strain manifests after vaccination is a bit of a worry. It is normally extremely rare.

      • The whole of the vaccination schedule is a trial, never before in history has there been so many vaccinations or diseases like this. No vaccine is given the same testing as any other product made by pharmaceutical companies, remember they are more interested in selling a product than making them with safe ingredients. More transparency is needed and more rigid testing.

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  • Speedy to recovery Jenna! I hope this becomes a reality sooner rather than later, I want to protect my family any way I can!

    Reply
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