Read this in a UK 'news paper' today .. Any experience of it here? The vaccine that is. Available? Common? Expensive?


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...effective.html

IIRC it's mentioned as "méningocoques" on my daughter's "carnet de vaccination" as one of the optional vaccinations that can be given by the paediatrician.

Just found this: http://www.infovac.ch/index2.php?opt...temid=1&id=530

It looks as though it is not available free of charge on your health insurance. There are outbreaks nearly every year at recruiting camps for Swiss soldiers, so it is known here.

Meningitis can be caused by other viral infections, so it is difficult to see how a vaccination could work.
__________________________________________________ _____________
government information,
http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/krank...x.html?lang=en

Vaccinations Compulsory health insurance covers the costs of various vaccinations, as specified in the guidelines and recommendations of the Swiss Vaccination Plan. The following may be mentioned as the most important:

• Vaccinations against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella (German measles; MMR); from 1.1.2013 until 31.12.2015, no deductible is due for the vaccination MMR for persons born after 31.12.1963
• Vaccinations against hepatitis B and - for certain risk groups - hepatitis A
• Vaccination against influenza for people aged from 65 and for people with a risk of serious complications in the event of infection
• Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis
• Vaccination against cervical cancer for school-age girls and young women up to the age of 26, if provided as part of a cantonal vaccination programme; no deductible is due for this vaccination

Travel vaccinations and preventive treatments (e.g. yellow fever and malaria prophylaxis) are not covered.
Your doctor can provide further information and advice if you have any queries about vaccinations.

True, but bacterial meningitis is the most serious and deadly form of the disease and the one most requiring a vaccine.

So it looks like the swiss schedule has the C variant but not the B variant mentioned the UK article?

Kids are due at the paed in a couple of weeks, one year old is due some jobs i think so can ask then.

I regularly get the vaccine for meningitis B. It has to be done in a series of shots over a period of time, as I last recall, so can be a bit tedious. But I travel to some odd parts of the planet, so it is required or highly recommended for me. Not sure if it would be recommended for the general swiss population though.

Nothing to do with the fact that the military vaccinates all the new recruits of course.

If my memories are correct, Swiss pediatricians propose two kinds of vaccines: the 'highly recommended', and the 'recommended'.

The meningite one is recommended. Both my kids got it.

There's also other vaccines you can get, but you have to specifically ask for them (like the chicken pox one for young kids) or are not paid back by your insurance (like the rotavirus one).

There is some confusion about the vaccines that we're talking about. The vaccine for meningitis C is available for all ages in Switzerland and is part of the recommended childhood vaccination schedule.

The meningitis B vaccine (Bexsero) mentioned in the article has been approved in Europe for use in adults and children, but not yet in Switzerland. The UK NHS decided a while ago not to add the vaccine to their normal childhood vaccination schedule, saying that the cost outweighed the benefits. It's now available privately at the cost of several hundred pounds, creating a divide of "haves" and "have nots" in terms of access to the vaccine. This is the controversy being reported today by the Daily Mail.

(with about as much timeliness as The Local -- the decision was taken months ago: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96N0JF20130724)