Asked by: Alison Griffiths (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has met with representatives of Meningitis Now since the recent meningitis outbreak; and whether he plans to meet them to discuss their recommendations.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, regularly engages with charitable organisations on a variety of issues.
A targeted vaccination programme has been introduced in direct response to the Kent outbreak, and he has asked the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to review the evidence on the scope of the meningococcal group B vaccine programme.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has engaged closely with meningitis and sepsis charities throughout the outbreak. This includes Meningitis Now, the Meningitis Research Foundation, and the UK Sepsis Trust. As part of this collaboration, Meningitis Now co-badged a signs and symptoms poster developed by the UKHSA, which has been shared widely to support public awareness.