A nightclub will become a makeshift clinic for Bradford teenagers to have lifesaving meningitis jabs.

The district's 15 to 17-year-olds have been slow in coming forward for the mass immunisation programme, with fewer than half having had the injections.

So health chiefs will get into the groove and take over the Milk Bar club, in Cheapside, Bradford, for a Saturday of immunising young people.

Dr Ruth Gelletlie, public health consultant and district immunisation co-ordinator, said it was a bid to reach young people who were no longer in school.

"They did this in a Leeds nightclub, and got a wonderful turnout. They immunised 1,700 in Ritzy's, compared with about 100 in health centre sessions," said Dr Gelletlie.

The idea immediately received enthusiastic support from the Meningitis Research Foundation.

A spokesman for the foundation said: "Teenagers are in the second highest risk group and opening a nightclub to attract people who have not yet had the vaccination is a positive step."

Mark Wilson, a partner in the Milk Bar, said: "It really brought it home to me when my niece had a mild bout of meningitis last year. She was two and she spent a couple of weeks in hospital.

"The health authority approached us and we were glad to help, especially as we are hoping to launch a Friday night teen scene disco in the next few weeks."

In what health bosses believe is a unique step, nurses and health specialists will also be spending an afternoon in the Boots store in the Kirkgate Centre, offering 15 to 17-year-olds immunisation against the C strain of meningitis.

In Bradford, 72 per cent of school children in the 15 to 17 age group have had the immunisations, but fewer than two out of ten people of that age who no longer go to school have come forward to clinics for their jabs.

"Meningitis is an awful disease and it's really important for young people to be immunised," said Dr Gelletlie.

Her team is in the process of writing to 9,831 teenagers who have not had the injections inviting them to attend a similar session.

The mass immunisation is part of a nationwide scheme to protect those most at risk of the disease. Very young babies and 15 to 17-year-olds were first in the queue, with children of other ages scheduled to have the injections this year in a rolling programme being managed throughout the country.

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