Are you aware that from 1 September 2015, England, Scotland and Wales became the first countries in the world to offer babies a vaccine against meningitis and septicaemia caused by meningococcal B infection as part of a national immunisation programme? This has led to a change in the guidelines regarding advice on giving prophylactic paracetamol.
Public Health England (PHE) now recommends babies receive three doses of infant paracetamol 120mg/5ml as a prophylactic measure against fever.
Babies should receive one dose at the time of vaccination or shortly afterwards and then two more doses in four to six hour intervals.
The recommendation exceeds the current licensing terms of infant paracetamol (120mg/5ml), which is restricted to a maximum of two doses to treat post-immunisation fever in babies aged two to four months.
The PHE advice follows a recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). That recommendation was triggered by evidence that the new meningitis B vaccine may cause infants to experience more fever when it is given with other routine immunisations at two and four months.
Written by Judith Spruzs