To Vaccinate or Not? Sorting Out the Confusion Over Meningitis Shots

NY Times ^ | June 28, 2005 | DEBORAH FRANKLIN

[neverdem]

With summer closing in fast, Julie Kern was eager to squeeze in a routine medical checkup for her 12-year-old daughter before she headed off to camp in Massachusetts.

But then the pediatrician surprised Ms. Kern. "The doctor said that if my daughter was planning to attend sleep-away camp, it was 'mandated by law' - those were the words she used - that she receive a meningitis vaccine," said Ms. Kern, who lives in New York.

The doctor was wrong. There are no regulations - local, state or federal - that require campers to be vaccinated against meningococcal bacteria, a source of rare but fierce blood and spinal infections that can maim or kill previously healthy people within hours.

Nevertheless, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would agree with Ms. Kern's pediatrician that her daughter should get the shot - not because she is going to camp, but because of her age.

In late May, the health authorities urged doctors to start giving a newly available, longer-lasting meningococcal vaccine to children at age 11 or 12. The policy shift was intended to have young adolescents immunized just before their risk of catching a deadly form of meningitis begins to climb.

The new vaccine, from Sanofi Pasteur, is called Menactra and was approved in January by the Food and Drug Administration for use in people from ages 11 to 55.

One shot of Menactra is expected to increase immunity against four of the five deadliest strains of meningococcal bacteria for at least 8 to 10 years. That's twice as long as the protection provided by an earlier vaccine, Menomune, made by the same company.

Unlike the older vaccine, Menactra also quells silent meningococcal infections among asymptomatic carriers, who manage to escape the microbe's treachery...

[Huntress]

Whenever someone tells me that "it's the law," and I don't believe them, I ask them to cite applicable statute or regulation. They usually can't.

[neverdem]

Check meningococcemia for the survivors. It's still a marginally free country. If your kid becomes symptomatic from this bug, they often become amputees or dead.

[Kozak]

I just had both my kids immunized, a 20 year in college and a 15 year old off to camp.

I'm an ER physician and about 3 months ago I treated a previously healthy 12 year who came down with fulminant meningococcemia. At 8pm his parents put him to bed with the "flu", fever and body ache. At 4am they checked on him and found him burning up, took him to the bathroom and noted he had a rash and looked very ill and rushed him to the ER.

When the nurse saw him she called me immediately, I took one look at the rash and started to order lab, xray, antibiotics, IV fluids, and emergent transfer to a pediatric hospital. Over the course of 2 hours he became covered with one solid bruise, you could literally watch it spread before your eyes. He was dead in less then 24 hours.

This is the 4th or 5th time I have seen this disease in my career, only one survivor, with both legs amputated, and on dialysis for a year. This is not a disease to mess around with.

[neverdem]

I appreciate your comments. Explaining meningitis vaccinations is hard enough, especially with the hysteria associated with autism and autistic spectrum disorders. I feel like swimming against the tide.

[Huntress]

I think it probably is wise to have kids vaccinated against this disease. I just don't like to be pushed around by doctors trying to scare me. A simple explanation of the risks and benefits would almost certainly win me over.

[WV Mountain Mama]

A friend of mine died from this when he was 24 years old. We never found out how he contracted it. He was healthy, athletic and dead in 24 hours.

[neverdem]

I just don't like to be pushed around by doctors trying to scare me. A simple explanation of the risks and benefits would almost certainly win me over.

I don't want to scare anybody. I just want them to be aware of this very bad actor. The pictures I linked in comment# 3 show the visible effects of disseminated intravascular coagulation, which causes the amputations and organ failure, if one survives.

[neverdem]

A friend of mine died from this when he was 24 years old. We never found out how he contracted it. He was healthy, athletic and dead in 24 hours.

"Unlike the older vaccine, Menactra also quells silent meningococcal infections among asymptomatic carriers, who manage to escape the microbe's treachery, only to pass the infection along to someone more susceptible through a kiss, a wayward cough or a shared glass or fork."