Toolkit Launched to Help Fight Meningococcal Disease on College Campuses

Toolkit Launched to Help Fight Meningococcal Disease on College Campuses Photo Credit: Pixabay Meningococcal disease is a serious bacterial infection that usually leads to extreme swelling of the tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) or infection of the bloodstream (meningococcemia). Even with antibiotic treatment, 10 to 15 out of 100 people infected with meningococcal disease will die; about 11 to 19 out of every 100 survivors will have long-term disabilities, such as loss of limb(s), deafness, nervous system problems, or brain damage. The toolkit that was launched offers many materials that may aid student organizations in advocating for campus vaccine policies as well as educational information to help fellow students learn about meningococcal disease and how to prevent it. It also contains materials like fliers, a poster, an FAQ, and sample petition that can be used by college students to educate their peers and help advocate for change and better campus health policies to combat meningococcal disease from occurring in the student population. The outbreaks that occurred recently at U.S. colleges include the University of Wisconsin Madison, Santa Clara University, and Rutgers University. The fact that there have been such outbreaks demonstrates how imperative it is to vaccinate against this disease. Most recent cases of meningococcal disease on college campuses, including the ones at the above universities, primarily involve cases of serogroup B disease, and the toolkit stresses that students should obtain both the MenACWY and the MenB vaccines in order to be fully protected. As part of their campaign, NMA included the stories of two advocates: Kolton Kreston, who survived serogroup B disease when he was a junior in college, and Claudette Lewis, who lost her daughter Cherice to the disease when she was a sophomore. “Fighting meningitis was the biggest obstacle I ever faced. The pain was so intense at times I didn’t want to live. I urge every student to learn more about meningitis and get both vaccines,” said Kolton, who now coaches wrestling at Northwestern College in Iowa. Besides the stories of Kreston and Lewis, the toolkit also includes a video with more advocate stories and urges young adults and adolescents to talk to their doctors about both types of vaccines against meningococcal disease. Two vaccines, MenACWY and the MenB vaccines, offer protection against all five of the major strains of the disease: A, C, W, Y and B. To access the NMAs Pledge2Prevent toolkit, go to http://www.nmaus.org/educational-resources/pledge-2-prevent/.