Smileband Health issues

The parents of a baby girl who had all of her limbs amputated after being struck down by an almost eradicated form of meningitis are campaigning for earlier vaccines. Kia Gott contracted the extremely rare strain of the condition in September in what doctors called the worst case of meningitis they have seen in 25 years. 

The one-year-old, from Bradford, underwent emergency surgery in a desperate bid to save her life and had all of her limbs amputated.

Her parents, Paul, a 35-year-old self-employed window fitter, and Vikki, 30, have been told she may lose her sight and hearing. Tragically, if Kia had been born just months earlier, she may not have contracted meningitis at all.  

In July 2016, the meningitis C vaccine, routinely offered to all babies in the UK at 12 weeks old to protect them from that particular strain of the disease, was withdrawn from the national vaccination programme. 

Instead, it was decided that the vaccine would be given at 12 months. 

Now Kia's parents are campaigning for the vaccination age to be reconsidered and have started an online petition aimed at forcing discussion in Parliament.

They are calling for the meningitis C vaccine to be reinstated at 12 weeks. 

Donna said 3,000 people have signed it up but 10,000 signatures are required for the government to respond to the petition while it takes 100,000 names to have the issue debated in parliament.

And their fight has been boosted by their local MP who wrote a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt demanding the issue be reconsidered. Bradford South MP Judith Cummins wrote: 'As a parent myself I can only begin to imagine the devastation that this heartbreaking situation has caused for Kia's parents, Paul and Vikki as well as her older siblings, Kayden and Elsie and I can certainly appreciate their frustration and, quite frankly, sheer anger that had Kia been given the MenC vaccine at 12-weeks-old her upcoming 1st birthday would be spent at home surrounded by a large and loving extended family instead of facing many more months in hospital where Paul and Vikki keep a constant vigil by her bedside.'  

According to the Meningitis Research Foundation, one of the reasons the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation, which advises the Government, decided to withdraw the meningitis C vaccine at 12 weeks was because incident rates had dropped significantly, and it was believed that the new meningitis B jab, a breakthrough vaccine, would also offer some protection against meningitis C, too. Another factor was the introduction in September 2015 of another meningitis vaccine, known as ACWY and given to children at the age of 14, which would help build ‘herd immunity’ that would also protect babies and young children.   

The number of infants contracting meningitis C remains low, but it has risen since the vaccine at that age was withdrawn.   

Statistics released by Public Health England show that in 2015-16 (from July 1 to June 30), two children up to the age of five contracted the disease; in the year 2016-17, the figure had risen to six. In babies up to 12 months, the figure rose from one case in 2015-16 to four in 2016-17.