Additional meningitis vaccination clinics

Advisory: Additional meningitis vaccination clinics

The University of Michigan will offer its students three additional meningitis vaccination clinics this week.

The Michigan Visiting Nurses—part of the U-M Health System, in conjunction with the University Health Service (UHS), will conduct the clinics at the following locations and times:

Tuesday, Sept. 25 – 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. – South Quad Main Lobby

Wednesday, Sept. 26 – 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. – Bursley Hall Main Lobby

Tuesday, Oct. 2 – 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. – Michigan Union – Sophia B. Jones Room

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that incoming college students be educated about meningococcal meningitis and the potential benefits of vaccination based on the increased incidence of the disease in freshmen living in residence halls.

UHS Interim Director Robert Winfield continues to see no cause for alarm about meningococcal meningitis at U-M. However, he notes that “the University recommends to students and their parents that they become informed about meningococcal vaccination’s potential benefits. While the University does not require meningococcal vaccinations for students, we hope that these clinics will make it easier for students to get information or vaccination if they so choose.”

Meningococcal meningitis is a potentially fatal infection unless treated with antibiotics and other therapies in a timely fashion. Its early symptoms often mimic the flu, so Winfield emphasizes that it is important for students seek medical care if two or more of these symptoms occur together: high fever, rash, nausea or vomiting, severe headache, neck stiffness, lethargy and sensitivity to light. Both the UHS and the U-M hospital emergency room are prepared to help students with such symptoms. The single-dose vaccine being offered at the special clinics and at UHS protects against the four types of the meningococcus bacteria that cause 70 percent to 80 percent of the meningococcal meningitis disease in the United States. It does not protect against the viral form of the disease, which has similar symptoms but is far less serious. No cases of meningococcal meningitis have occurred on the U-M campus since 1995.

For further information about the clinics and about meningococcal meningitis visit the UHS Web site at http://www.uhs.umich.edu or call the UHS Allergy and Immunization Clinic at (734) 764-8304.

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