Vaccinations advised for students
College freshman checklist: loud stereo, ramen noodles – and maybe a meningococcal vaccine shot.
The Spokane Regional Health District is asking parents to consider the meningococcal vaccine for their college-bound children, especially those moving into residence halls. Area colleges also are urging students, especially freshmen, to consider getting the vaccine.
Studies done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest students living in campus dormitories are at higher risk of contracting meningococcal disease than students overall, according to the health district.
The vaccine helps prevent bacteria that can cause bacterial meningitis, a dangerous inflammation of membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Another variation of the disease is meningococcemia, a blood infection.
In July, a King County teenager died of bacterial meningitis after attending a football camp at Eastern Washington University in Cheney from June 26 to 30.
In April last year, Washington State University put out a notice after a 19-year-old student was treated in a Pullman emergency room for nausea, vomiting, chills, fever and dehydration. She had meningococcemia.
Alisa Lewis, a University of California-Berkeley basketball player and 2001 graduate of Gonzaga Prep, died Jan. 19 in California of bacterial meningitis.
The rare infection spreads through respiratory and throat secretions. Sharing drinking glasses or cigarettes could spread the bacteria, health officials said. But exposure to an infected person does not always lead to illness.
Seven cases of meningococcal disease were reported in Spokane County last year. Four cases have been reported in the county this year. Washington state sees 75 to 125 cases each year. About 5 percent to 10 percent of cases are fatal.
Symptoms include fever, severe headache, stiff neck, sleepiness, rash and confusion. In severe cases, it can spread through the blood, causing tissue damage and clotting disorders.
WSU Health and Wellness Director Bruce Wright said, “We are strongly encouraging incoming students, particularly freshmen, who are going to live in dense residential areas like residence halls, fraternities and sororities to get the vaccine as there is some evidence that people in this category are at increased risk.”
Jan Murray, director of Whitworth College health center services, said brochures about the vaccine are being sent to both freshman and transfer students.
A number of parents have called her office with questions, wanting to know if they should have their child vaccinated, Murray said. She strongly recommends doing so.
“The incidence of the disease is so low a lot of people end up choosing not to do it,” Murray said.
The trouble is that once a student has been infected, the disease is fast-acting and potentially fatal, Murray said. Disease survivors frequently lose arms and legs, she said.
“If I had a college freshman right now, I’d have them get the vaccine,” Murray said.
Most colleges offer the vaccine for between $75 and $102. Spokane Regional Health District offers it for $97, but that rate can change quickly depending on the price set by the supplying company.
For more information, call the Spokane Regional Health District clinic at (509) 324-1600.