Emergency meningitis vaccine will be imported to halt Ivy League outbreak

NBC News ^ | 5 hours ago | JoNel Aleccia,

[BenLurkin]

Emergency doses of a meningitis vaccine not approved for use in the U.S. may soon be on the way to Princeton University to halt an outbreak of the potentially deadly infection that has sickened seven students since March.

Government health officials said Friday they have agreed to import Bexsero, a vaccine licensed only in Europe and Australia that protects against meningitis B, a strain not covered by the shots recommended for college students in the U.S.

[headstamp 2]

Since March?

[mrsmith]

“This is domestic vaccine garcon! Take it away and bring me the imported!”

[sarasmom]

Do you have meningitis (viral or bacterial) or do you have encephalitis?

Either and/or, you are in a world of incredible pain, and will “present to the ER” since the pain is beyond human toleration.

That said, why does it matter, if you are among the lucky ones, and you survive whatever it was, with most of your faculties intact?

It matters because the diseases are different.
Any instance of a bacterial infection in any locale should cause widespread panic amongst the larger local population.
Because you will die, in less than 72 hours.
If it's a viral version, you just wish you could have died, but given enough intensive palliative care and time, you can gratefully recover in six months or so from the immediate major affects.
If you contracted the “insect bite” induced viral version (encephalitis), your local, state and federal government will do anything and everything within their power to pretend you never even existed at all and/or lie about your actual diagnosis.

I wish the CDC had twice the power of the EPA.
I would much rather the doctors and scientists in the CDC erred on the side of safety, than the mostly useless (nowadays) EPA political appointees who decide what is harmfull to humanity based on political or economic preferences.