Nottingham parents looking to give their children meningitis B jabs are being made to wait after a number of private clinics offering the vaccination ran out of stock due to high demand.
It comes after a mother shared an image online of her two-year-old daughter, who later died, lying in a hospital bed covered in a rash caused by the condition.
Faye Burdett, from Maidstone, Kent, died on Valentine’s Day after fighting the infection for 11 days.
Her family including mother Jenny have since started a campaign on the internet to raise awareness of the symptoms and improve access to vaccines.
An online petition appealing for the jab to be made free to all children up to the age of 12 has also gathered more than 400,000 supporters.
The vaccine has been free for babies on the NHS since September but parents who want to have older children vaccinated must pay privately.
Meningitis B is a bacterial infection which effects the brain and spinal chord. There are more than 3,000 cases of it a year in the UK and mainly effects young children.
It can be fatal and cause life-changing injuries. The vaccination protects against the meningococcal group B bacteria, which causes more than 90 per cent of meningitis cases in young children.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW
Some parents have been trying to get it privately as some clinics and pharmacies have offered the jabs to older children.
But stocks are running extremely low as one Nottingham mother found out.
Hannah Kennedy, of West Bridgford, is a mother-of-two who tried to get her daughter the vaccination at Regent Street Clinic, Nottingham, but was told they were out of stock.
She said: “I’m on a waiting list, but I don’t know how long that list is. They just said there were lots of other mums who had called up after seeing those images.
“My daughter was born just after the cut off point so it’s really annoying. I have always had a fear of meningitis and seeing that picture scared me,” Hannah added.
She added she is behind the recent petition which has already been signed by more than 400,000 people.
“I will be signing it, but I haven’t done so yet.
“In an ideal world, all children should be able to get the vaccination.”
Image: Photo of Faye Burdett covered in a rash in hospital
A Department of Health spokesman said: “When any new immunisation programme is introduced, there has to be a date to determine eligibility – a decision based on the best independent clinical recommendation to ensure we can protect those children most at risk of MenB.
“When our nationwide MenB vaccination programme was introduced last year, England became the first country to protect our babies from this devastating disease. All children who are now aged up to 9 months should have been offered the vaccine.”
