The Department of Health has this week renewed its reassurance over the safety of meningitis C vaccine. Following newspaper reports of serious adverse reactions, some fatal, following vaccination, the Government's deputy chief medical officer, Dr Andrew Fraser, encouraged parents to have their children vaccinated.
Dr Fraser said that the Committee on Safety of Medicines had reviewed the available data on the safety of meningitis C conjugate vaccines on June 22. It had concluded that most of the reported suspect adverse reactions were "non-serious". "The small number of serious reports of reactions were thoroughly reviewed and CSM concluded that vaccination provided a clearly demonstrated benefit in terms of lives saved and disabilities prevented," Dr Fraser said.