A FURIOUS father today said his 18-year-old daughter could risk catching a killer brain bug after she started at university - because nobody will give her the vaccine.

John Briggs, of Glenshiels Avenue, Hoddlesden, said he had tried every avenue possible to find somebody who can give his daughter, Alison, the meningitis vaccine.

Alison recently began studying at Manchester Metropolitan University, where bosses have been giving students the vaccine as long as they are living on the campus.

But Alison is commuting each day from Hoddlesden to Manchester and has been told she is not eligible to be given the jab.

Her father has tried locally to find a doctor who could supply his daughter with the drug, but has failed. And now he fears his daughter may be more at risk than other students, after several recent cases of meningitis on university campuses.

He said: "This is all very frustrating. We have been trying for two weeks to do something about this and got nowhere. We can't even get past the receptionist at Darwen Health Centre. Can anybody tell us why there is such a shortage of the vaccine?

"It would appear that somewhere along the line there has been a huge bureaucratic bungle."

Many colleges and universities have been forced to think again in recent weeks about their plans to carry out mass immunisations on campuses.

Health bosses have admitted there is a shortage of the BCG meningitis vaccine, although there is a plentiful supply of childhood vaccines.

No health authority comment was available.

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