Why is universal college freshmen vaccination being encourage when a life-style factor has been strongly implicated?  - SM

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August 10, 2001

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“Study Links Teen Smoking to Hike in Bacterial Meningitis” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (www.post-gazette.com) (08/08/01) P. A1;

Spice, Byron

According to a study published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, the growing popularity of smoking among young adults and teenagers may be a factor in the higher number of bacterial meningitis cases among people aged 15 to 24 during the 1990s.  The study’s author, Dr. Lee Harrison of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, says that while smoking is not the only cause of the rise in bacterial meningitis cases, it is nevertheless a risk factor for the disease, and the rise in cases has paralleled the growth of smoking among teenagers and young adults over the last 10 years.  In fact, other studies have also indicated a connection between smoking and the risk of contracting meningitis.  Smoking is known to make people more susceptible to a number of diseases, while bacteria often enters people’s bodies through their mouth and throat.  Harrison added that a new strain of meningitis bacteria may also have been responsible for the increases in cases of the disease, and researchers are currently carrying out genetic analyses of those who came down with bacterial meningitis to see whether new strains were in fact involved.  Another study in the same journal, this one by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that the danger of contracting meningococcal disease is three times greater for college freshmen living in dormitories than it is for other university students.  This study is consistent with another study carried out by Harrison, which found in 1999 that university students living on campus had a three-and-a-half times greater chance of catching meningitis than students who lived off-campus.  The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that college freshmen be vaccinated against meningitis, but the shots are not required.

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