NEW MENINGITIS VACCINE
The government has now formally recommended that a new meningitis vaccine be given to millions of children and college students. It’s the first time a meningitis vaccine is targeted for those under 18.
But there’s one problem: there’s not enough to go around.
Right now the meningitis vaccine that currently exists is recommended for college students and military recruits.
Nicholas Agrawal, a junior at NYU, says he didn’t take it before entering college. “I think I had to sign a form saying that I understand that I haven’t taken the shot and that the school is not liable.”
It wasn’t an absolute requirement that college students should get the meningitis vaccine, although some groups, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommended they should be immunized.
Sophomore Matt Sullivan did take it. “Because of nasty conditions in some dorms my mother told me I should probably get them meningitis vaccine, so I did.”
College students, especially freshmen living in dormitories, are the ones most at risk for getting meningitis. That’s because they’re living in such close quarters, it’s easy for them to contract the disease from someone else.
But now, there’s a new meningitis vaccine about to hit the market called Menactra. A government panel recommended for the first time that all college freshmen get the shot.
Unlike the current meningitis vaccine, Menactra lasts 8 years.
Dr. Temitope Jose, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, says, “One of the advantages is that it last longer, provides immunity for a long time. The old shot used to provide immunity somewhere between 3 to 5 years but this one seems to last a little bit longer.”
The panel also recommended that all ten million or so 11 and 12 year olds get the shot. The problem is, there are only around five million doses of the meningitis vaccine to go around this year.
However, Dr. Jose says it’s not a terrible issue, particularly if someone is not living with other students. “You want to know whether they are living in dorms or whether they are living at home, because that alters their risk for getting the disease.”
And, in fact, not every college student with whom we spoke says they want the shot. “I would have to research before I just went and got a shot for sure,” says Nicholas.
There are around three thousand cases of meningococcal meningitis in the U.S. each year. 300 die from it.
Because of this early shortage, the government panel says that it did not recommend the meningitis vaccine shots for all young people ages 11-18, only those 11 and 12 years of age.