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The parents of Pierre-et-Marie-Curie and Jean-Jaurès nursery schools received a letter yesterday from the Regional Health Agency and department of Gironde inviting them to a vaccination campaign against meningococcus B, on November 23 and 24, Lucie’s room- Aubrac to Floirac. This is a first injection, the second will be scheduled in a month.
237 children are affected, but also school and recreation center staff, as well as the teaching team.
This vaccination campaign follows the severe meningococcal infection that struck three schoolchildren a week ago.
A 3-year-old boy was struck by lightning and died. A girl of the same age was hospitalized in serious condition, she is now out of danger and the third child affected has returned home. Thursday evening the results for the third child returned negative: this child was therefore not suffering from meningococcal infection, as the medical teams feared.
Sylvie Quelet, physician, deputy director of ARS health watch and alert, explains that the strains of the germ circulating in Floirac had to be sent for analysis, before starting a vaccination campaign: “In fact, these strains are sent to the National Center of Reference for meningococci at the Institut Pasteur in Paris for analysis. And the results indicated that it was indeed a meningococcus B, against which the Men B vaccine vaccine is proving effective. “
Of course, people in close contact with infected children were treated with upstream antibiotic therapy.
The vaccination campaign is free
In France, only vaccination against meningococcal C infections is mandatory. Vaccination against meningococcal B infections is sporadic, when the health situation requires it. The High Authority for Health has not chosen to make it mandatory, while other European countries have done so. However, a reassessment of vaccine recommendations against meningococcal infections is currently underway by the High Authority for Health itself. Floirac’s vaccination campaign will be free.
Today the Bexsero vaccine can be given to infants when families request it, knowing that this vaccine is not covered by health insurance.
Why is this vaccine not recommended in France, while it is for example in England? Dr Jean Sarlangue, pediatrician at Bordeaux University Hospital, explains: “Bexsero is a recent vaccine, 2013, which was designed with an original technology, we gave it to Béarn a few years ago, following a series of infections meningococcal, a vaccination campaign that has not been very successful. This vaccine was not yet recommended, because there were doubts about the duration of protection it offered, exactly the same debate today for the Covid vaccine. Now, we have the necessary hindsight and we know it is effective for several years. “
“In England, it has become mandatory, following several deaths of children victims of these meningococcal B infections, and under pressure from families. This would not be possible in France, given the mistrust of vaccination in general.”
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