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July 29, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Meningococcal Jabs for All Children, Plead the Experts"
Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) (07/26/02); Robotham,
Julie
Experts from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on
Immunization recommend that the vaccine against meningococcal
disease be mandated as part of the national childhood
immunization program. They also suggested the ways and means for
ranking the vaccine and two other new ones against chickenpox and
pneumococcal disease according to public health benefit, in case
adding all three to the schedule was too costly in the
government's eyes. The meningococcal vaccine could protect
against roughly half of all the serious cases in Australia, and
could be administered in a series of doses for infants and as a
single dose for older children. Any national vaccine program
including the meningococcal vaccine should target the birth- to
four-year-old age group and the 15- to 25-year-old age group,
says national vaccine committee member Dr. Peter Eizenberg.
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