<p>A University of Oregon student died recently of bacterial meningitis. Please have your students vaccinated ( I say that selfishly since my son will be attending Chapman this fall).</p>
<p>I hear it's pretty contagious.</p>
<p>Yep, contagious and too often deadly. D got her vaccine which is availble at your GPs office. Larger universities, like UTexas, actually require proof of this vaccine before students can register for class. Smart!</p>
<p>My S got this a couple years ago…do you know offhand how often it needs to be repeated?</p>
<p>My son got it when he was 14 because we were traveling to China. He got another dose last month, age 18.
According to the info sheet from the Dr., 2 doses are recommended for adolescents 11-18: the first dose at 11 or 12, booster at age 16. If the first dose is given between 13 and 15, booster should be given between 16 and 18. If the first dose is given after 16, a booster is not needed.</p>
<p>The best way to protect your child from meningitis is to make sure he or she gets all the standard immunizations for children. These include shots for measles, chickenpox, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) disease, and pneumococcal infection. </p>
<p>Talk to your doctor about whether you or your child also needs the meningococcal vaccine, which is a shot to prevent bacterial meningitis. It is recommended for:</p>
<p>Adolescents at age 11 or 12. A booster shot is also needed at age 16.
Young adults ages 21 and younger who haven’t had the shot yet. (They should get it as soon as possible.) </p>
<p>The vaccine is called meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4).</p>
<p>My son was given this vaccine at age 13 and the booster shot at age 16.</p>
<p>More information here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/mening/who-vaccinate.htm[/url]”>http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/mening/who-vaccinate.htm</a></p>
<p>Correction: The booster shot was given to him at age 17 one month before turning 18. </p>
<p>He was actually taking a physical in order to fill out the Chapman U Health Record Form which all students need to turn in before they can register for classes. A Doctor needs to fill out and sign this form. They gave him the meningococcal booster shot at that time.</p>
<p>So by having to fill out this form for Chapman U a competent Doctor will check if a student has been vaccinated against Bacterial Meningitis. That should be consoling to you Marioluigi.</p>
<p>Just took S to our doc today for his TB test and meningitis booster. Thanks for the heads up on that one! S had been tested for TB before, when we lived in CA and he was just starting school. Glad I remembered to grab the health history form too. S suffers from chronic migraines and allergies too so we’ll be seeing a slew of docs before classes begin in the fall.</p>