Jamie McGrigor, Highlands & Islands Conservative MSP, has welcomed the news that Scots babies are to be offered a new Meningitis B vaccine in the near future.
Speaking this afternoon in a debate in the Scottish Parliament on Scotland’s immunisation programme, Jamie said:
“All of us today would wish to pay tribute to all those Scottish NHS staff who are involved in delivering our immunisation programme, which is without doubt one of the biggest health successes of the last 100 years. We should also today express our gratitude to the scientists whose research has allowed us to have the vaccinations we often take for granted.
“We are fortunate to live in the modern world, where both smallpox and polio, which were formerly so common and did so much damage, are no longer things to be feared, thanks to immunisation. Indeed, the World Health Organisation declared smallpox wiped out in December 1979, and Europe was declared free form polio in 2002.
“However, we must never be complacent. We know that it is vital that in order to maintain progress, uptake rates remain as high as possible. It is reassuring that uptake rates in under-24-month children for primary courses of immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Hib, MenC, and PCV, have exceeded the 95% target for the last decade. Let us hope this continues.
“As medical technology becomes ever more advanced and as new health challenges emerge, it is right and proper that health experts consider what additional immunisations might benefit our people. Therefore, as other members have done, I, too, welcome the recent news that the meningitis B vaccine is to be introduced into the routine childhood immunisation programme at 2, 4, and 12 months of age.
“MenB occurs mostly in infants and children under 5, and is fatal in around 10% of cases, with 1 in 8 cases experiencing serious long-term health problems such as amputation, deafness, or epilepsy. It is a real boost to parents’ confidence that children will be protected in future from this terrible disease”.