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June 26, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"To These Moms, College Readiness Includes a Meningitis Shot" Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (06/25/02) P. F03

Five mothers, dubbed MOM for Moms on Meningitis by the Meningitis Foundation of America, are looking for ways to educate parents on the importance of having their college-age children vaccinated against the deadly disease prior to going off to campus this fall.  Each mother has lost a child or has had a child suffer complications as a result of the disease, which typically kills five to 15 college students across the country each year.  Early symptoms of the disease mimic stomach flu or a cold.  The vaccine is 85 percent effective against four of the five strains of meningitis, so many colleges, including George Washington University and the University of Virginia (UVA), plan to sponsor on-campus immunization clinics this fall.  School involvement in preventing this disease has been on the increase since the 1990s when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed statistics that put resident hall college freshman at higher risk of contracting the bacterial disease than other college students. As a result, Maryland, Virginia, and 15 other states mandate the vaccine to incoming freshman or undergraduates, or require them to sign waivers of understanding and risk acceptance.  There were five cases of meningitis at UVA during the mid-1990s which, along with increasing number of insurance carriers including the student health plan which cover about 75 percent of the cost of the vaccine, prompted a huge upswing in the immunization rate on campus.

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