South Australian survivors of a devastating strain of meningococcal have united to call for a life-saving but expensive vaccine to be subsidised to spare other families the horror of the disease.

Listing the Bexsero vaccine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme would slash the cost, currently up to $500 for infants. “I wish it was available for me when I was younger, so I didn’t have to go through what I did,” says survivor Chloe Anderson, 21.

Everytime sufferer Dylan Watkins looks at the stump of his left leg, he is reminded of the horrific toll of meningococcal disease.

The 12-year-old, who contracted the deadly infection as a 17-month-old, chose to have his lower leg amputated last year after the pain of operations to repair damage to the limb became too much.

Today the Strathalbyn boy has joined two other survivors of a deadly strain of meningococcal who are calling for a potentially life-saving vaccine to be subsidised to spare families the trauma of the killer disease.

Dylan, Paul Goodfellow and Chloe Anderson have told of their stories in a bid to put pressure on a Federal Government committee to give Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme approval for Bexsero — the first broad-spectrum vaccine for meningococcal B, the strain responsible for about 85 per cent of Australian meningococcal infections.

For more details, go to: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/meningococcal-disease-survivors-want-the-bexsero-vaccine-on-the-pharmaceutical-benefits-scheme/story-e6frg6n6-1226954687822