Meningococcal C vaccine in adolescents
The meningococcal C strain can cause life threatening meningitis at any age. It is particularly prevalent in the teenage years.
Your child will have received immunisation against this bacterium as a baby if he/she is less than seven years of age otherwise not. In any event this immunity wanes over 10 years so in America a follow up dose is recommended at 11 years of age. This is not given in the UK but I recommend it.
It was originally thought that this would provide immunity for at least another 10 years but recent research has shown that this is not the case and in many protection wanes after about 5 years .
The recommendation in America is now that a second dose is given at least 2 months after the first.
I also recommend this for my patients.
This is important as the peak incidence of meningococcal disease is in the teenage years.
If your child is coming up to the teenage years then I recommend that he/ she should be given 2 doses of the conjugate meningococcal vaccinesepareted by 2 months.
Two doses of the Human Papilloma Vaccine can be given at the same time.
I use the Gardesil preparation as this protects against 4 strains of the papilloma virus causing cervical carcinoma rather than Ceverix the vaccine used routinely in UK which protects only against two
At present it is only given to girls but I recommend giving it to boys as well as they are generally the vectors.
Contact Kelly on 020 7224 668 to book an appointment or if you have any questions.
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