Adolescents Should Get A Vaccine Against Bacterial Meningitis

Adolescents Should Get A Vaccine Against Bacterial Meningitis.
Teenagers should get a booster ball of the vaccine that protects against bacterial meningitis, a United States fettle bulletin has recommended. The panel made the good word because the vaccine appears not to wear as long as previously thought. In 2007, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that the meningitis vaccine - mainly given to college freshman - be offered to 11 and 12 year olds, the Associated Press reported daerah. The vaccine was initially aimed at great nursery school and college students because bacterial meningitis is more precarious for teens and can paste hands down in crowded settings, such as dorm rooms.

At that set the panel thought the vaccine would be efficacious for at least 10 years. But, information presented at the panel's union Wednesday showed the vaccine is effective for less than five years. The panel then stony to recommend that teens should get a booster discharge at 16.

Although the CDC is not bound by its advisory panels' recommendations, the medium usually adopts them. However, a US Food and Drug Administration official, Norman Baylor, said more studies about the shelter and effectiveness of a assistant dose of the vaccine are needed, the AP reported.

Some at the encounter wondered if it was even necessary to make such a decision. Cases of bacterial meningitis are at prominent lows, and a study of more than 200 colleges and universities - representing more than 2 million students - in the concluding academic year found 11 cases of bacterial meningitis and three deaths, the AP reported.

In a scuttlebutt report issued after the vote, the National Meningitis Association said it "supports the firmness to maintain meningococcal immunization at period 11-12 and to add a booster dose to provide increased delaying of disease among adolescents throughout their high-risk years. This is a admirable public health decision that will protect our children from meningococcal disease".

Meningitis is an sore of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord, and is commonly caused by a viral or bacterial infection. The disability can result in brain damage, hearing loss or knowledge disabilities, according to the CDC. In January, the New England Journal of Medicine published a look that found that rates of pneumococcal meningitis have declined at heart since a vaccine was introduced in 2000.

The declines were seen not only in children given the vaccine but also in adults, suggesting a "herd immunity" effect, the ruminate on authors noted. To assess the power of the vaccine, researchers from several universities analyzed watch data from 1998 to 2005 in eight states malebox.us. The several of cases of the bug dropped 30 percent in that time, but the effect on the very youngest and oldest was even more pronounced: Incidence decreased by 64 percent in those younger than 2 and by 54 percent in those older than 65.