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Originally Posted by holly6737  I got this vaccine voluntarily before entering my freshman year 6 years ago. We had a meningitis outbreak my junior year in the dorms. The student almost died (I think he's paralyzed now though, really sad...) less than 48 hours from the onset of symptoms (which aren't very obvious- headache and stiff neck?!). Those who lived in his dorm or he had had contact with were treated and given the vaccine just in case (voluntarily of course...) The student health center actually ran out of the vaccine and had to have more shipped in. I would get the vaccine again (you can preach about nutrition all day, but the majority of those kids live on pizza and beer regardless) and I'm going to highly recommend it to my children if they want to live in the dorms. It's hard to practice good hygiene when you share a bathroom and showers with at least 50 other people, many of which puke in the shower stalls and some that also defecate in them (in the boys dorms...).
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Actually, the symptoms of meningitis
are pretty obvious. Extreme headache and stiff neck that causes severe pain when you attempt to put your chin to your chest. It's not like you just get a headache and then you die from meningitis.
I agree that college kids don't tend to eat right, but there's a difference between offering a vaccine to them and
mandating one. Besides, you're missing the whole point when people talk about nutrition. You don't seem to understand how meningitis works and how vaccines work. Vaccines only prevent
certain serotypes of certain bacteria from causing meningitis. When you put those specific bacteria out of the running, the other serotypes just step it up. This is talked about here all the time. You really ought to look into serotype replacement before you decide a meningococcal vaccine is going to help anyone.
The meningococcal vaccine doesn't even protect against the one serotype that causes the MOST cases of meningococcal meningitis. Serotype B causes around 50% of meningococcal meningitis cases and isn't even in the vaccine. If you knock out the other types, you might just be making room for B to become more common. It happened with Hib vaccine. It happened with Prevnar. Why should this be any different? If you have no answer, no response, no clue -if you don't even know what serotype replacement is or how it works, then how can you argue the topic? You need to understand the basics before you recommend a vaccine to
anyone. If you don't know what serotype replacement is, what causes it, how it works, how it might effect your children, why would you recommend this vaccine to them? Without even understanding the basics surrounding the issue, how could you honestly tell them it's a good idea? You don't have enough information to make that determination!
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