Meningitis death spurs students to seek shots
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Students began calling Florida Atlantic University's health clinic Tuesday asking for a bacterial meningitis vaccination following the publicized death of Jupiter High graduate and UCF student Rhett Davis from the disease.
With about 40 doses of the vaccination on hand, FAU administrators said they have enough to cover current demand but are ordering more to prepare for a possible rush in January when students return from winter break. Final exams end this week, and many students have already left campus.
Davis, 20, died in Orlando on Nov. 29 thinking he had the flu. Although Davis lived off of the University of Central Florida's campus, studies show that freshman college students in dorms have a higher risk of catching the rare, but contagious infection that can maim and kill within days of the first symptoms appearing.
A 2002 Florida law that requires college students to sign a waiver if they opt against receiving a meningitis vaccination passed after three University of North Florida students got sick, but recovered from the infection.
FAU President Frank Brogan said more discussion about whether tougher college immunization requirements are necessary will follow Davis' death. "It's an issue we should look at as a state university system," he said. "What should a student be required to have when they walk onto a university campus?"
It's already outlined for kindergarten through grade 12 students who hear "No shots, no school, no kidding," when they register. Parents can refuse immunization, but only after getting a doctor's note or telling school officials in a letter it is against their religion.
FAU health officials believe some students are reconsidering their freshmen year decision to reject the meningitis vaccination, which protects against up to 80 percent of the germs that cause the illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children 11 and 12, and college freshmen in dorms be vaccinated.
"There's not an onslaught yet, but we've been receiving calls," said Cathie Wallace, director of student health services at FAU. "We may not have a bigger demand until they come back to class."
This fall, 54 percent of FAU's new students reported they had already received the immunization or got it while enrolling. There hasn't been a case here in 11 years.Thirty-four states have some form of legislation regarding meningitis education and immunization for college students. Connecticut and New Jersey have the stiffest laws for college-age shots, said Lynn Bozof, executive director of the National Meningitis Association. Both require a doctor's note or written statement saying the immunization is against the person's religion for students to opt out of the shot.
"I can't tell you how many stories we hear of parents knowing about the vaccine and just putting it off and then living to regret it," said Bozof, whose son died in 1998 from the disease. "It's easy to opt out of the immunization. But you can't always think this disease will happen to someone else. It can happen to you."
A Passport Health of Tampa Bay "Health & Travel Tips" Newsletter Article, December 2006
Contact us with questions or comments
Website design by Studio 785