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Major Health Care Organizations Ask University of Michigan, Michigan State to Require Vaccination to Protect Students against Deadly Meningitis B
On Monday, Michigan’s leading health care organizations asked administrators at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to require students be vaccinated against Meningitis B, a deadly disease that in recent years has taken the lives of college students across the United States, including here in Michigan. The organizations, part of the Parent Information Network, joined groups from across the Midwest, signing a formal letter delivered to administrators encouraging participation in the Big 10 Challenge, an effort to see major universities adopt the lifesaving reform. Indiana University and Purdue University this spring became the first Big 10 schools to enact Meningitis B vaccination requirements.
“Meningitis B is a deadly disease that’s especially dangerous for college students, but it can be prevented,” said Betty S. Chu, MD, MBA, President of the Michigan State Medical Society. “Students and young adults are among those most likely to contract meningitis B, especially in settings where students are living in close proximity to each other and sharing drinks and food. U of M and MSU should take a critical step to protect their students by requiring a simple, lifesaving vaccination.”
Each year, approximately 1,000 people contract a form of meningococcal disease in the United States. Since 2013, at least 46 college campuses have reported cases of meningococcal disease. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that among those who become infected, 10 to 15 percent will die. Of those who survive, another 20 percent will suffer from permanent disabilities, such as brain damage, loss of limbs, hearing loss and/or other serious impacts to the nervous system.
There are many different groups of meningitis, but the common vaccine only protects against 4 of them. Adolescents are still at risk for the group B strain without a second, unique vaccination. Meningitis B accounts for nearly 50 percent of all meningitis cases in persons 17 to 22 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Alicia Stillman has been fighting to raise awareness about Meningitis B since her daughter Emily lost her life to the disease. Emily was a 19-year-old sophomore at Kalamazoo College in 2013, when she contracted Meningitis B, the only type of meningitis not included in the common
meningitis vaccine given to adolescents across the United States. She passed away hours after contracting the disease.
“My world changed forever the day I lost my daughter to meningitis,” said Stillman, a Farmington Hills resident and the founder of the Emily Stillman Foundation. “There was no vaccine for Meningitis B when Emily contracted the disease, but there is now. Making the immunization a
requirement for students on campus will save lives and prevent the kind of heartache my family
experiences every day.”
Meningitis B is spread through saliva, and nose secretions, putting college students at particular risk of contracting the disease because of the communal setting at most colleges and universities.
Symptoms of meningitis can include feeling poor, a fever, nausea and vomiting, a severe and persistent headache, a stiff neck, joint pain, confusion or other mental changes, sensitivity to light, and a red or purple skin rash in which color does not fade when pressure is applied to the skin. Symptoms can appear quickly or over several days. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has delivered a letter and educational information to every college and university in the state, asking them to update their school’s immunization policies when it comes to Meningitis B and other vaccine-preventable diseases.