Tom and Felicity Harley say this vaccination could save your baby’s life.

A mother’s plea: vaccinate your kids.

Just weeks after watching their newborn son Hugo nearly die from a combination of enterovirus meningitis and bacterial meningitis/meningococcal B, Women’s Health Editor Felicity Harley and her husband, AFL premiership captain Tom Harley are pleading with parents to vaccinate their children.

Their five-week-old son was one week away from being old enough to receive his vaccinations when he was rushed to hospital on Easter Sunday with a high temperature.

Doctors started him on intravenous antibiotics as they awaited test results for suspected enterovirus meningitis.

“That was definitely enough to explain why he was so sick, so we could have left it at that,” Paediatrician Dr Emily Horsley told the Herald Sun.

Viral meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges — the soft tissue membranes which cover the brain and spinal cord underneath the skull and spinal column.

But further tests including two lumbar punctures found that baby Hugo was also fighting the bacterial meningitis, meningococcal B.

Bacterial meningitis is fatal in approximately 50 per cent of cases and accounts for around 170,000 deaths around the world each year.

Former Geelong captain and now Sydney Swans general manager, Tom Harley, told The Herald Sun it was tough.  “I tried to stay really positive, but when you go home at midnight, you’d sit there with your own thoughts, and have your little moments by yourself,” he said.

“Then you’d get back on the horse and do it all again the next day.”

It is infectious through respiratory droplets, so the Harleys had to painstakingly go back through anyone who had had close contact with Hugo in that past week including cafes and restaurants and inform them of the bacterial disease.

About 10 close family and friends received antibiotics.

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The family was lucky to have caught it. According to Dr Horsley the likelihood of having viral meningitis plus bacterial meningitis was less than one per cent.

“The risks of untreated bacterial meningitis are pretty ­severe, including neurological damage, death and seizures,” she said.

Felicity Harley posted an image on Instagram with a caption saying:

“We’ve been to hell & back (a few times) but Hugo is our fighter & ready to take on life. We are going home!!! I urge all new mums to seek help immediately if you feel your kid’s health isn’t right. Our quick thinking may have just saved his life. Oh, and VACCINATE your kids peoples!!

The strain of meningococcal B that Hugo had can be treated with a vaccine (he was too young at the time).

Children are routinely vaccinated against meningococcal C in their under the childhood immunsation schedule, but meningococcal B is not included in that scheme. While infection by strains A, W135 and Y is less common in Australia, vaccination is important in older children and adults who are travelling overseas.

Last year Bexsero who make the B vaccine  applied for a Government subsidy – and for it to become a part of the childhood immunisation schedule but it was rejected by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee amid concerns about its effectiveness and cost.

So parents currently have to fork out $500 for the vaccine on the private market.

Just last month the UK added the meningococcal B vaccine to their national childhood immunisation program – making them the first country in the world to do so.

Meningococcal Australia said last year that they were disappointed by the decision by the Government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee not to fund the Meningococcal B vaccine.

“Up to 1 in 10 of those who contract the disease will not survive and up to 1 in 5 are left with lifelong disabilities that range from learning difficulties, sight/hearing problems, loss of fingers, toes and limbs as well as scarring from skin grafts.”

Felicity and Tom Harley have now vaccinated both their sons against the B strain and urge other parents to do so, saying it could save lives.

For more information including sings and symptoms of Meningococcal visit Meningococcal Australia.

 Disclosure: Mamamia is a commercial website and Meningococcal Australia is a client of Mamamia’s. However, this post is not a sponsored post or advertorial.