A message to parents about meningitis

<p>Sadly, a Wash U freshmen passed away tonight after battling meningitis for the past three weeks. While I'm not sure if the student had the vaccine (it is required for all wustl students) I hope parents will make sure that their pre-college students get the vaccine. It is a terrible tragedy, and my sympathies go out to the young girl's family. Please all, make sure your child gets vaccinated,</p>

<p>Thank you for the reminder. It is on my radar as pediatrician promotes it and my freshman RA was very ill with meningitis and lost a semester of school. It’s a tragic reminder that these things really are important and “life and death”.</p>

<p>I saw a presentation from a former student who barely survived being afflicted with meningitis at college where she was fine one day and nearly died within a day or two. She’s now in a wheelchair. It sure got the message home. </p>

<p>This is a good reminder for parents about this communicable disease.</p>

<p>My husband had bacterial meningitis three times in three months. It is very scary and both of my kids have been vaccinated. </p>

<p>The other things I tell my kids are to seek medical attention for a temp of 103 or higher and to seek medical attention if you feel sicker than any other time in your life. The first time my husband got sick, he went from flu- like symptoms to not being able to get off the floor in about four hours. The neurologist told me if we had waited another four, my husband probably would have died. </p>

<p>So sorry for the family.</p>

<p>Thank you for the reminder… such a tragedy.</p>

<p>This is so very sad. </p>

<p>While it is extremely important all kids get the vaccine it’s also important to remember that it doesn’t protect against all forms of meningitis. </p>

<p>I had viral meningitis which is not deadly <em>thankfully</em> but my symptoms were nearly identical. I have never had a headache so horrid in my life and when I told my husband I thought I needed to go to the ER he thought I was crazy. But I insisted. The amazing thing was once at the ER when I told them I had this awful headache the took me immediately. Had a spinal tap and while waiting for those result they wheeled me in for a brain scan (to rule out a tumor.) It took 24 hours to determine if it was viral or bacterial so I had to be quarantined and even after it was determined to be viral I was in the hospital several days. I bring this up because people sometimes feel silly going to the ER for something as minor as a headache, but remind your kids if it’s way worse then ever before (or any symptom is) to go to an ER asap. </p>

<p>MDMom, how did your husband contact it 3 times in 3 months?</p>

<p>My father got it once. That was enough for my mom to say “get the vaccine”.</p>

<p>Oddly enough, he caught it whilst visiting the hospital. He ended up staying there for a few days. One of his symptoms was a neck and head ache.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Not a big surprise – hospitals are full of sick people seeking medical care.</p>

<p>Emilybee, after the second time, they diagnosed a spinal fluid leak that was allowing bacteria to get into his spinal fluid directly, through his sinuses. When they repaired the spinal fluid leak, he developed an abscess, had surgery for that and got meningitis a third time as a complication/side effect of surgery. More than you wanted to know, probably. Not a good year (1992). He was a lucky man.</p>

<p>^^ Or unlucky - depending on how you’re looking at it. What a rough time for him (and you too I’m sure)!</p>

<p>Lucky to live through it.</p>

<p>Gosh, MD, scary stuff. He is a very lucky guy, indeed.</p>

<p>Recurrent meningitis is rare, and usually due to some type of anatomic issue, like above. </p>

<p>When I was a pediatric resident, Hib meningitis was still the most common kind we saw. It was the most common cause of deafness in kids. With the Hib vaccine, we’ve virtually wiped it out. Then came Prevnar, which reduced the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis, the 2nd most common cause in kids. With the Menomune and then Menactra and newer meningococcal vaccines, we’re working on the 3rd big bacterial meningitis bad guy. Residents nowadays almost never see bacterial meningitis-- truly amazing!!</p>

<p>So, yes, get your kids, college age kids, military recruit kids all vaccinated. Soon we’ll be able to give the vaccine to younger kids (the incidence of meningococcal meningitis is less in little kids but not zero. The worst night of my residency was spent watching a four year old die of menginococcal sepsis). We’re getting to point of eradicating bacterial meningitis from the US! Momentous indeed.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to hijack this thread but I have a question.</p>

<p>If colleges (and the one this student attended) require the vaccine, what happens to someone who refuses the vaccines. Can they still be admitted. I have to assume there are people who refuse for a variety of reasons, and there are probably waivers so they can attend college.</p>

<p>I’m sure it is also possible, but rare for someone who was vaccinated to still contract the disease. </p>

<p>My DS got the vaccine. I do have to mention that when we took him for the vaccine (last summer) the people doing vaccines were not well informed on this vaccine. I thought it was pretty standard for entering college students, but we had quite the discussion and they also had to pull out their CDC book and read through it before they were willing to vaccinate him. Has anyone else run into this.</p>

<p>Well, no vaccine is 100% efficacious. But the more people around you who are vaccinated increases greatly the immunity of the group (herd immunity). So, esp in close quarters, where this type of meningitis likes it, it is important for kids to be immunized. It’s also one reason that two doses are now required. </p>

<p>I’ve been reading in some places that colleges are not accepting waivers for the meningococcal vaccine (because of the above issues). In most states, for other vaccines, there may be religious or philosophic waivers available for, say, kindergarteners. imo the meningococcal vaccine is a whole 'nother animal and we should strive for 100% vaccination rates if we can. So, I’m in favor of very little wiggle room with re to waivers.</p>

<p>Many pediatric offices are better versed in the kid/teen/young adult vaccine guidelines than are family practice or internal medicine practices, in my experience. There are frequent changes in guidelines and peds offices just get used to them better because their volume of patients getting vaccines is so much higher.</p>

<p>I read in the news this morning that a student from Central Michigan University has died from baceterial meningitis as well. Scary, scary stuff.</p>

<p>I kept meaning to get the vaccine while I was a student and for one reason or another it didn’t end up happening, I don’t think I could pull the funds together. Now I have insurance which covers vaccines… is this something people should still consider getting as adults if they missed getting it as students even though the risk of getting meningitis isn’t as high?</p>

<p>The more I hear about these kinds of things, the more surprised I am that umich didn’t require any vaccinations when I was attending… I doubt that’s changed in the last couple of years but I think it probably should.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>This makes sense to me. When we moved from Canada to US with an 8 year old who’d had every required vaccination, I was surprised to find that she needed some catch-up to be admitted to school in Georgia. It made me aware of the guidelines and I’ve since noticed that they do change quite often. As a parent who’s not in a medicine related field, who knew?</p>

<p>When D called the pediatrician to make an appt. to get the mening. vac. last week, she was informed she’d already had it in 2009. This caused me to recall some discussion at an annual checkup. I’ve always agreed to all recommended vacs. Thanks to our pediatrician’s approach, all she needed was to have them fill out the university’s form.</p>

<p>Be sure to get the newer, more effective conjugate vaccine, Menactra rather than the older lipospolysaccharide vaccine, Menimmune. Both are on the market. Be sure of which one you are getting.</p>

<p>Just a caution, it may be difficult to get the vaccine. We used to carry it in the office but insurance reimbursement was much less than what the vaccine costs. Your doctors office may not be able to afford to get it and you may have to go to the health department.</p>

<p>I don’t any pediatric offices who use Menomune, but there may be some FP or internal medicine that do. Insurance reimbursement is good in most areas (because it’s recommended by the AAP and required for many colleges), but until most school districts require it, yes, it may not be fully reimbursed. </p>

<p>The risk for meningococcal disease drops off with adulthood and when you are not living in close quarters with many young people, but though of the course the risk is not zero, it’s pretty low.</p>