The Health Council recommends against including meningococcal B vaccination in the National Immunisation Programme for the time being. Currently, the incidence of meningococcal B is relatively low in the Netherlands. It is uncertain how many of these cases can be prevented with vaccination, while the vaccine causes (high) fever relatively often, which can sometimes lead to hospitalisation in very young children. Therefore, the benefits of a vaccination programme against meningococcal B do not outweigh the disadvantages.
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