Meningitis C student vaccination programme extended

16 January 2015

Meningococcal C booster vaccination is now available until March 2015 for first-year university students who have not received a teenage booster and for those under 25 years of age who have never been vaccinated.

21 cases of meningococcal disease have been reported in university students since the start of the academic year in September 2014 | SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The catch-up vaccination programme was introduced in summer 2014 to ensure young adults who received their initial dose of meningococcal C vaccine in childhood are protected from the disease when starting university, as it can spread quickly in shared accommodation.

The 2013/14 programme was initially scheduled to run until October 2014 but has been extended following reports of 21 cases of meningococcal disease in university students since September 2014.

The catch-up programme will run for several years until university entrants have received a dose of meningitis C vaccine routinely in adolescence.

Those who should be vaccinated are:

students entering university who were born after September 1995 and received previous dose(s) of the vaccine when under 10 years of age
any other student who is unimmunised or partially immunised against meningitis C.

View meningitis vaccine drug records

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