It will be next year before some children in the State will be able to get the booster vaccinations they require to protect them from a bug which can cause a lethal form of meningitis, it emerged yesterday.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed that while it expects some booster jabs to be available from the beginning of next month it will be early next year before all the supplies that are required can be sourced.
Up to 48,000 doses will be available in October but an estimated 180,000 children require the booster vaccine.
As a result a special committee just established by the HSE to oversee the implementation of the booster programme will meet today to decide which children should be vaccinated when the first batches become available.
Children aged one to four will require boosters and it is likely children in the 12-24-month age bracket will be vaccinated first.
The HSE, which has put in place a helpline for concerned parents (1850 241850), tendered for supplies of the booster vaccine yesterday, a day after it emerged that a two-year-old boy from Co Louth had died from a form of meningitis caused by the bacterium haemophilus influenzae, which the vaccine protects against. The HSE and the Department of Health were aware of the need for the booster vaccination campaign since it was recommended by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) in July.
The NIAC made the recommendation after discovering that some children who were vaccinated at two, four and six months had lost their immunity to it. The toddler from Co Louth who died had been vaccinated.Blame for the delay in acting on the recommendation from the NIAC is being passed from the Department of Health to the HSE. The HSE said the booster campaign would cost €10 million and extra funding was sought for it from the department.
The department told the HSE to use money from its contingency fund. The HSE is now responsible for the health service's annual €11 billion budget.
Minister for Health Mary Harney claimed yesterday the Department of Health acted speedily on the recommendation from the NIAC. She said the department received the advice from the committee on August 3rd and responded the next day.
She said operational responsibility for the introduction of the vaccine booster programme was a matter for the HSE.
The UK introduced a booster campaign in 2003.
Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey sharply criticised the delay in acquiring adequate Hib vaccine supplies here.
Dr Brenda Corcoran of the HSE's national immunisation programme explained that the vials of Hib vaccine in GPs' fridges at present were mixed with other constituents to make the five-in-one vaccine but she said these vials were not licensed by the Irish Medicines Board for use on their own. Therefore, it was not recommended they be used.