A nursing manager in Chislehurst has urged parents to get their children vaccinated against Meningitis B.

The NHS only offer the vaccination to babies aged between two and five months – and nurse manager Joanna Cox, 42, said this has left all other children vulnerable.

However, three years ago her clinics - JA Medical and Cosmopolitan Medical - in Chislehurst and Maidstone, introduced the preventative vaccine.

Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes, known as meninges, which surround the brain and spinal cord.

For £140 you can get your child vaccinated against Meningitis B, the most common infection, at the clinics in Chislehurst or Maidstone.

Ms Cox told News Shopper: “It is expensive. It is a difficult decision for families to find the extra money, but if they are in a position to do so, it is a really good vaccine to get against an aggressive infection.

“Meningitis can affect anyone. Babies are a high risk, but children under five or people under 25 are still at risk. “

- What are the symptoms?

Symptoms include a headache, a high temperature, a stiff neck, dislike of bright light, drowsiness or unresponsiveness, seizures and a blotchy rash that does not fade when a glass is rolled over it, although that does not always develop. Symptoms can develop quickly and in any order.

Since the Government decided to only offer the vaccination to babies – over 800,000 people have signed a petition to allow children of all ages to freely receive the vaccine.

Ms Cox added: “A lot of children would not have been offered this vaccination unless their parents researched privately.

“We get a lot of parents who have new babies who are offered it, and then they realise their older children never got it.

“That is when they come to us.”

On Tuesday (April 24) it is World Meningitis Day.