Student Health Center Recommends Vaccines For Freshmen In Dorms

February 17, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida freshmen living in residence halls should obtain a vaccination for bacterial meningitis as soon as a new vaccine becomes available this spring.

UF’s Student Health Care Center expects to have the new, longer-lasting vaccine called Menactra in late March or early April, said Dr. Phillip L. Barkley, the center’s director. “We will have it as soon as it’s commercially available,” he said.

The university is following a recommendation last week from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The committee urged that children 11 and 12, teens starting high school and college freshmen in dormitories receive the new vaccine, which lasts longer than the previous vaccine and prevents people from carrying the disease in a dormant state.

Older college students and those who live off campus also should consider the vaccination, but the committee recommendation does not specifically include them, Barkley said. “The ACIP has narrowed focus to college freshmen living in a dorm,” he said. But the disease can affect older students, he added.

Students who have already been vaccinated in the last three to five years do not need the new vaccine, Barkley said.

Meningococcal disease is caused by bacteria that infect the bloodstream, lining of the brain and spinal cord, often causing serious illness, according to the CDC’s Web site. Every year, 1,400 to 2,800 people are infected, and about 300 die.

Early symptoms are commonly mistaken for the flu, and the disease develops rapidly, Barkley said. “Even with quick treatment, this disease can lead to severe and devastating outcomes,” he said, adding that many who survive can lose limbs or their hearing.

Barkley is not sure of the costs for the new vaccine, but he expects it to be similar to what the Student Health Care Center charged for the old vaccine, $85.

Although considered highly effective, the new and old vaccines do not protect against meningococcal disease caused by “type B” bacteria, which cause about one-third of the cases.