The Meningitis Research Foundation is this week, urging the government to consider the lifelong costs, both financially and emotionally, for the survivors and families of meningitis and septicaemia.
The hope is to raise support for vaccines against the diseases and call on the government to carry out wider, and earlier, routine vaccinations.
Financial figures on the treatment of meningitis survivors can reach upwards of £160,000 per person, although this pales into insignificance with the emotional cost of caring for a child who may have suffered amputations, behavioural difficulties and brain damage, all as a result of a preventable illness in the cases of Group A and Group C meningitis. The Meningitis Research Foundation are desperately trying to raise funds to develop a vaccine against the Group B meningococcal disease which remains the main cause of meningitis infection in England and Wales with almost 1000 laboratory confirmed cases in 2010 alone.
For more information on the signs, symptoms and prevention of meningococcal disease and septicaemia, as well as to sign a petition urging the government to include vaccinations for Meningitis B as soon as these become available, please visit http://www.meningitis.org/.