<p>S an incoming freshman and his college requires students to read a whole page of info about meningitis and the vaccine and then log in and sign something online as to their deicision to get or not get the vaccine.</p>
<p>Is there some scary side effect of the vaccine that makes getting it controversial or questionable? If they want them vaccinated, why not just require it as they do the MMR?</p>
<p>This should not be a choice for anyone living in dorms or barracks. The effects of meningococcemia can be devastating or fatal.</p>
<p>Well, if it means anything, I just got the shot yesterday, and I haven't experienced anything more devastating than a very sore arm. I also couldn't see why I shouldn't get it, especially since a kid died of meningitis at a friend's college last year. It's a scary disease.</p>
<p>mominva - I understand that, but then why do they make it optional? It suggests to me that there is some risk in the vaccine itself.</p>
<p>The option is usually for religious objections to vaccines in general.
Since the school requires the MMR, I would ask the school for their rationale.
This vaccine is one of the lesser controversial.</p>
<p>There is no good reason not to get the vaccine. A very small price to pay for protecting oneself from a sudden and often tragic disease.</p>
<p>It could be optional simply due to extra cost to the student's family. Some people have to make a conscious decsion on what to let go in order to pay for something else that can't be let go. Everyone doesn't have insurance that pays for vaccines. S's college required a tetanus shot that he was missing. That shot alone was $60 at our Dr's office.</p>
<p>Guillain Barre Syndrome - but it's extremely rare</p>
<p>Menigococcal vaccine is optional at my D's college which adheres to its state vaccination laws, but D talked to her doctor and asked her to give her the shot (I was very glad).
Here is the info sheet from the CDC:
<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-mening.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-mening.pdf</a></p>
<p>Ooops, I checked the copied of D's medical papers - it is not really optional, but if there is no vaccine available, there is a form for the doctor to sign.</p>
<p>One of my friends didn't get any of the vaccines that her school didn't require because she is religiously opposed to them.</p>
<p>I got both meningitis and HPV, and I never experienced any soreness or reactions. Neither have any of my friends who got them. :) I really don't feel like there's any downside-meningitis is a nasty and deadly disease.</p>
<p>My son is at school in Mass. and it was required. As a matter of fact, I had to really work hard to find the vaccine before he went to school two years ago.<br>
I would never not get this one. College students have died from menginitis.
As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was thinking of posting a thread to remind parents to get the vaccine lined up early so it is done before enrollment in Aug/Sept.</p>
<p>Agree. I worked in a boarding school and we did not require it but it was strongly encouraged. There isn't much difference between a boarding school dorm and college dorm. Although I appreciate religious preferences and the right to choose, this one just shouldn't be optional. And it sounds like some schools are making it required. I rarely go out on a limb like that and I am sure some CC'rs will disagree (strongly). Meningitis is fast, furious and more deadly.</p>
<p>My opinion is that they do not require it because of advice from their lawyers. Liability issues. It ought to be required.</p>
<p>When our son started college, he was only 9 and commuting from home, so we didn't feel he needed the meningitis vaccine and I believe his pediatrician also felt children under 10 shouldn't get it for some reason. In any case, our son became friends in his first semester in college with a 17-year-old student living in the honors dorm and she spent hours in our son's bedroom here at our house one evening just chatting with him (yes, I am sure all they did was chat as the door was left open) shortly before Christmas. A few days later, she was sick so badly that she needed to be hospitalized and it turned out she had meningitis. I am thinking she had one of the strains for which vaccines give no protection (current shots give protection for four of the top five most common strains of meningitis last I read), so realize that even having a vaccine doesn't prove 100% protection. This friend of our son's had an unusual issue from the disease - she was extremely sensitive to light and had to wear dark classes even in fairly dimly lit indoor spaces, and she said this would be something she'd have to do for the rest of her life. She had some other longterm side effects from the disease, too, but at least she lived. I felt <em>really</em> lucky that our son never came down with the disease from having spent hours with her so soon before she went into the hospital as I figure she was probably contagious that night. In any case, I wasn't so scared as to have our son get a vaccine for this disease as soon as he turned 10 or the like, but did feel he should have one before he started living in a college dorm at age 14 (especially one with lots of foreign students as his graduate dorm is over 50% students from other countries) and I am not sure if MIT required that vaccine or not as we just felt it made sense for him to have it before moving on campus. And had he contracted meningitis from the friend back at age 9, I have no doubt I'd have felt a fool for not having him get the vaccine sooner, and extremely guilty feeling if that gal had a strain that the vaccine gives protection against.</p>
<p>All vaccines and medicines have risks, including the meningitis vaccine. The benefits far outweigh the risks. I do know, through a friend, one of the very rare people who became extremely ill because of the vaccine and came very close to dying. (After a coma, paralysis, and months and months in the hospital, she is well on her way to recovery, two years later.) I also know people who have had meningitis, both bacterial and viral. One girl is still alive and amazingly suffered almost none of the effects her parents were warned about (such as deafness, cerebral palsy, and serious neurological harm). Doctors were close to convinced that I had meningitis soon after my birth, but it turned out another disorder was to blame. People do die from meningitis, and college students are among the highest risk groups. </p>
<p>Anyway, yes, there are risks. There are always risks with vaccines and medicines. But meningitis is a ruthless disease, and it kills fast. Your son should definitely get vaccinated, both for his own sake and to protect those around him.</p>
<p>There's no sensible reason not to get the vaccine (and it's often a requirement). Although it doesn't protect against all types of meningitis (yes, you can still get meningitis even if vaccinated) it does protect you against some of the more common types.</p>
<p>Overall meningitis is quite rare, but when it does occur it's almost always contracted in a close communal environment like a college dorm and there are always a number of cases at colleges every year. </p>
<p>It's a really scary illness and is often mis-diagnosed as the flu or a bad cold by emergency rooms. There are all too many cases of someone being sent home with the 'flu' only to be found dead or ill beyond hope a few hours later. A few bucks and a quick shot is a small price to pay to take a big step towards avoiding this deadly disease.</p>
<p>"This friend of our son's had an unusual issue from the disease - she was extremely sensitive to light and had to wear dark classes even in fairly dimly lit indoor spaces, and she said this would be something she'd have to do for the rest of her life. "</p>
<p>Actually, photosensitivity is one of the hallmarks we look for in the hospital. Someone presenting with this symptom immediately tips us off to investigate meningitis as the cause. That and pain in the neck when lowering the chin to the chest would cause great concern and would help differentiate that from the flu or some other problem.</p>
<p>Isn't vacine just against some viral type, you can still get bacterial meningitis which is much more dangerous? Just asking. My D. got vacinated before she went to college just to make us all feel that we did what we could.</p>
<p>The name "menigo**coccal **vaccine" suggests that it is supposed to protect you from the bacterial form ("cocci" ususally refers to spherically shaped bacteria). Are there any microbiologists in the house?</p>
<p>The vaccine is, as stated, for 4 strains of bacterial infection.</p>