Vaccination would not have saved baby, says mother

The meningococcal disease that killed a baby 10 days ago was caused by the Group C strain of the bacteria and could not have been prevented by an earlier start to the nationwide immunisation campaign, his mother says.

Eight-month-old Cole Harwood from Manawatu had been booked in to have his first vaccination against meningococcal B later this month, but his mother Melissa Brown said even one dose in the three-vaccination programme would not have helped.

MidCentral Health medical officer of health Patrick O'Connor said the B and C strains of the disease were equally deadly, but it was meningococcal B that was responsible for about 75 per cent of cases in the current New Zealand epidemic.

There was a vaccine available against meningococcal C, and it had been used to protect small communities in isolated regional outbreaks in Wellington, Taranaki and Balclutha.

- NZPA