Am I eligible for the MenB vaccine?published at 09:45 GMT<\/p>\n
09:45 GMT<\/p>\n
A targeted vaccination programme for 5,000 students is expected to begin on the University of Kent campus in Canterbury later today. They’ll be given a jab for Meningitis B – the strain confirmed in six cases so far. <\/p>\n
Who is the MenB vaccine offered to normally?<\/p>\n
Since 2015, babies have been given vaccinations on the NHS for Meningitis B, or MenB.<\/p>\n
The vaccine is recommended for babies aged eight weeks. It’s followed up with a second dose at 12 weeks, then a booster when they turn one.<\/p>\n
It protects against the most common, but not all, group B bacteria.<\/p>\n
Long-term health conditions<\/p>\n
People with certain long-term health conditions are also recommended to get the MenB vaccine, and can be referred on the NHS by their GP.<\/p>\n
This includes people with no spleen, sickle cell anaemia, coeliac disease or complement disorders (an immune disorder), according to Meningitis Now.<\/p>\n
Can I pay for a vaccine?<\/p>\n
The MenB vaccine is available through pharmacies, travel clinics and private GP practices.<\/p>\n
The cost varies from place to place, but Meningitis Now says to expect to pay at least \u00a3110 for the two doses required.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Breakfast earlier this morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said it is “not necessary” for people to purchase vaccines privately as a result of the outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Am I eligible for the MenB vaccine?published at 09:45 GMT 09:45 GMT A targeted vaccination programme for 5,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-482117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}