Meningitis Law Takes Shots: Doctors Concerned With Whom Law Targets

<<< Back to Vaccines

www.thebostonchannel.com/health/4104956/detail.html
Boston Channel.com, MA
January 18, 2005

BOSTON -- A new law requiring freshmen entering college in 2005 to be vaccinated for bacterial meningitis took some shots Tuesday.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that since the law passed this summer, health officials have been working on regulations. They went before the public health council Tuesday for a meeting that was supposed to be a formality, but it was anything but that.

Doctors on the council have some real concerns about the law and whom it targets. Dr. Thomas Sterne said the law is bad because its wording implies all college freshmen are at risk and need vaccinating.

"If you give it to everybody and especially require everybody to assume their own personal expense for it and because it's not an inexpensive vaccine, you've assumed an awful lot of additional expense," Sterne said.

The cost is up to $80, footed by families, for a shot health officials concede not every freshman needs.

"The real risk is in freshman entering dormitories. We can actually define it that closely, so that for example, older students going back to school or students in upper classes actually don't have any higher rate of disease than the general public," Massachusetts Department of Public Health Dr. Alfred DeMaria said.

Bacterial meningitis is rare. Massachusetts sees just 40 cases a year. Some, like 24-year old Jeremy Griffin, do not survive. The Eastern Nazarene College student died Thursday night.

The vaccine isn't fully protective. In fact, it's useless against 30 percent of cases. And that's part of the reason Sterne wants the law reworded -- so students know the real risks, and can make a choice few know they have.

"Unlike any other immunization requirement in our state, this one does have a personal waiver option," Massachusetts Immunization Program Dr. Susan Left said.

To complicate things further, a new vaccine approved Friday may change everything. It's longer lasting and will likely be recommended for kids entering middle school and may protect right through college. Obviously, that would affect the new law.

"Probably for the next school year, we are going to have to enforce the statute that's on the books," Left said.

For right now, most college freshmen next fall will have to be vaccinated.

Back to top of Document