<p>I think that law was suspended after the meningitis shortages. I know it was required at Harvard, and then when the shortage occured, they sent all the students a letter saying that the meningitis vaccine was optional.</p>
<p>my oldest wasn't required to have any vaccines for college- I am thinking perhaps she should have some now since she doesn't have health ins & she lives with an EMT-Paramedic who probably brings home all kinds of cooties.</p>
<p>middle school son's doctor suggested he go ahead now and get the meningitis vaccine. a friend said her doctor recently advised the same for her boys. seems the recommendation is coming earlier than it was before.</p>
<p>I started the thread with no intention that it be a debate, and I don't think there is. I was just curious if there were any side effects or problems to be aware of like the poster who had a sore arm as we typically do with many vaccinations.</p>
<p>Cleveland, I'm sorry your co-worker lost a son. Those tragedies ripple outward and we don't forget. </p>
<p>Neither do I forget the fear my husband and I had 18 years ago when our newborn was sent back to the hospital twice for fear he had meningitis. Thank goodness we have a way to prevent or lessen the chances our young people will be struck down in such a cruel way. Son is off to the doctor this afternoon and the vaccination is a top priority. Thanks for all of the great advice.</p>
<p>ID mom, good article. Will forward to my squeemish D, who has joked that she just might forgo college to avoid a shot. Meanwhile her twin sister, is soldiering through rabies vaccines, yellow fever and so on for her exchange in S. America. After a year of weekly allergy shots.</p>
<p>The recommendation is coming earlier for meningitis, as kids are in enough group living situations in the HS years, that you never know.</p>
<p>I know that several local kids on sports teams came down with meningitis and they discovered the source was a shared water bottle. I have seen the kids throw these down and another kid come along and take a drink from it. I have also seen a basketball player come off court and give mouthguard to teammate he forgot his. YUCK! My son had his in February. Last year our doctors office ran out when there was a last minute rush in May and June before the kids headed to college.</p>
<p>ldmom06 is correct regarding Gardasil. FWIW, I work for the individual who led the clinical trial effort while he was at Merck. He's given internal talks about the clinical research and such.</p>
<p>When Merck designed the clinical trial, they had to meet the need to show efficacy to the FDA in order to get approval. Since most older women are already infected, it is much harder to show efficacy in older populations. Hence the age range tested. It is also the reason sane medical experts recommend vaccination at an early age, prior to infection. While as a parent of a daughter it is unpleasant to think about early sexual activity, to me it is even worse to think about the consequences of cervical cancer.</p>
<p>I'm looking on my son's health form, and I see "(MPSV4) meningococcal." I'm assuming that this is the meningitis vaccine. Does anyone know how long it lasts?</p>
<p>Never mind. I googled it and learned that the newer MCV4 vaccine is preferred, but if MPSV4 has been given, it is good for 5 years.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why not just make significant others get tested for diseases before signing a marriage license then? LOL.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What do you mean, LOL? </p>
<p>There used to be a blood test required before marriage. It was a test for syphilis. My soon-to-be-husband and I had to be tested before we were married (in Connecticut in 1976).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Neither do I forget the fear my husband and I had 18 years ago when our newborn was sent back to the hospital twice for fear he had meningitis.
[/quote]
Same here. I was about a week old when I was brought to the hospital with a 105 fever. Almost the first thing they did was kick my parents to the waiting room and do a spinal tap. It's not a disease to fool around with.</p>
<p>My brother-in-law, who is an emergency room RN, had a pretty bad case of viral meningitis a few months ago. Lumbar puncture was definitely no fun.</p>
<p>Whoa, ldmom. Hope he didn't get a spinal HA. Those are no fun.</p>
<p>at least he is old enough to know to lay still
I still vividly remember a baby in the same nursery as D, when she was in the NICU having to get a spinal tap- :p
That was scariest part of the Exorcist for me</p>
<p>NYMom - when my D went to college fall of 05, Menactra was still very new, and a little hard to get. She got the older vaccine, and as an MD I felt OK with that for a college age person because their risk becomes very low after age 25 and after leaving dorm living.
Although in med school I did see one case in someone in his late 20s, interestingly, from an epidemiologic POV, he was a tourist from Britain who had flown to LA or somewhere in the West with a group of 10-15 people, camping their way across the South/Southwest part of the US. A very astute ER doc in a poor, rural area of Alabama diagnosed him with meningitis, then rode up to B'ham with him on the ambulance, probably saved his life. It is interesting because it is somehow associated with living in close quarters with people who may be carriers of different strains of the bacteria than those the sick person is accustomed to - that is people from all over the country or from other countries, that's why residential college students are at increased risk.</p>
<p>cangel, thank you for the information. I was wondering why dorm living was considered a major risk factor, after the stories about infection by shared water bottles.</p>
<p>yes - he got a spinal tap...unfortunately the symptoms for viral and bacterial meningitis are so similar, and his symptoms were so severe, they had to do it. And ...lol...he did hold still for test, but not for the $40,000 bill he rec'd for treatment in his own hospital for a disease he undoubtedly contracted on the job in the ER. (They reduced it to amounts covered by insurance thank goodness.)</p>
<p>*...lol...he did hold still for test, but not for the $40,000 bill he rec'd for treatment in his own hospital for a disease he undoubtedly contracted on the job in the ER. (They reduced it to amounts covered by insurance thank goodness.)
*</p>
<p>Dont you love hospital billing depts? :p
The charges for my daughters stay in the neonatal intensive care unit- where she shared a nurse with one other baby, was less per day, than the bill for my husband in another hospital when he broke his leg and shared a nurse with half the floor.
Ins covered most of it, but still it really irked me off- as it increases rates for everyone.</p>
<p>Since I personally know two people who contracted meningitis--one a college professor and one a college student--I felt that the vaccination was more than necessary. The professor had asymptomatic meningitis in her first trimester, and her son was born with multiple abnormalities that led to open heart surgery 4 times and learning disabilities. The college student (now, this was in the 70s), was so close to death that his college put him in what was essentially a hospice. He made it through sheer force of will, I think.</p>
<p>Not only can meningitis have lasting, horrible effects, you also have a pretty high percentage of those effects if you do get the illness (ie, complete recovery is by no means a given, even if caught early). </p>
<p>Three years ago we had a teen in the area who was shopping for prom and graduation one weekend and dead the next. I hauled our boys to the local clinic for Menacta soon after that (it was just coming out in our county). Both boys said "ouch" and that was it. No side effects that I recall.</p>