New Law Protects College Students from Meningitis - United States of America

Whether they live in a dorm or off campus, new college students must now be vaccinated against bacterial meningitis.

Senate Bill 1107, signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last month, toughens the state's existing law that requires only students living in on-campus dormitories to be immunized against meningitis.

"This is a giant step in ensuring our campuses are safe for all students," said Anna Dragsbaek, president and CEO of The Immunization Partnership, a nonprofit organization that aims to eradicate vaccine preventable diseases.

Meningococcal disease, commonly known as bacterial meningitis, is highly contagious and spreads through coughing and sneezing, sharing drinks or utensils, and kissing or other person-to-person contact. The bacteria cause inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and can also infect the blood.

Once inside the body, the disease spreads with frightening speed.

Otherwise healthy students can end up in a hospital intensive care unit with severe bloodstream infection within a matter of hours. Those who recover may lose fingers, toes, arms and legs due to bloodstream infection, be left blind or deaf, or suffer brain or kidney damage.

Symptoms include fever, severe headache, a stiff neck, and often nausea, vomiting and mental awareness changes, as well as a red or purple spotty rash.

"The disease often gets a head-start in the body because people associate early symptoms with the common flu, and don't immediately consult a physician," said Mary Healy, M.D., director of vaccinology at Texas Children's Hospital's Center for Vaccine Awareness and Research.

By the time medical care is sought, Healy said, the disease has spread so quickly that about 10 percent of sufferers die from it, often within hours of the onset of symptoms.\

Jamie Schanbaum contracted meningitis in 2008 during her sophomore year at The University of Texas at Austin.

"One night within just a few hours I went from feeling a little bit sick to not being able to get up off the bathroom floor," she said. "I called my sister to help me, and she got me to a hospital."

Doctors said Jamie was within hours of death when she arrived in the emergency room. She survived and returned to her studies, but lost her legs and most of her fingers due to meningitis.

In 2009, the state legislature passed the Jamie Schanbaum Act, requiring new or transfer students planning to live on campus to get a meningitis vaccine.

But this newest bill passed last month protects off-campus students as well. The bill applies to new students entering college on or after Jan. 1, 2012, who have never enrolled or have been out of school for a semester or longer.

Nicolis Williams, a Texas A&M University student who died suddenly of meningitis this February, is the bill's inspiration. Because he lived off campus, Texas law did not require Nicolis to be vaccinated against meningitis.

"There was a gap in the law that needed to be closed," said Nicolis' father, Greg Williams. "The law only required immunization for on-campus students, but at large universities where housing is in demand, many students live off campus."

The day his son died, Williams picked up the phone and began calling state legislators to urge passage of a law to protect not only on-campus, but also off-campus students.

The new law, named the Jamie Schanbaum and Nicolis Williams Act, does exactly that.

"Honoring the legacy of our son by including his name in the law will forever remind us how precious life is," Williams said. "Every life spared by this law will be credited to Jamie and Nicolis."

Specifically, the Jamie Schanbaum and Nicolis Williams Act requires all college students under age 30 who are attending class on a Texas campus to present a physician-signed certificate showing they have been vaccinated against bacterial meningitis.

Passage of this law comes on the heels of a report released earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that college-age individuals between 17 and 21 have an exceptionally high rate of meningitis. In fact, the rate of invasive disease among this age group is about twice that of the overall U.S. population, the report states.

"It's the college lifestyle of living in close quarters and all that goes with it that is believed to increase the risk factor for college students," said Healy, who also is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.

The meningococcal vaccine protects against four of the five common strains of the disease, Healy said, and four out of five young adults who get meningitis could have avoided the disease, had they been vaccinated.

"Few things are more heartbreaking than watching someone die from a disease like meningitis that is preventable with immunization," Healy said.

Source: Texas Medical Centre