The University Health Center will replace its current meningitis vaccine with the new, more expensive vaccine, Menactra, which the Food and Drug Administration approved Jan. 14. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that college freshmen who live in residence halls get the new vaccination.
Health center officials are discussing whether the new vaccine will be required.
Menactra will cost students at least $10 more per shot than Menomune, the $80-per-shot vaccine the University currently uses, and student health insurance does not cover vaccines.
Health center Director Tom Ryan said the University is working with the drug manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, to trade the $2,000 worth of Menomune in stock for the new vaccine in an effort to avoid wasting student money.
Both Menactra and Menomune protect against four of the five serogroups of meningococcus; however, neither provide immunity against serogroup B, which Ryan said “causes almost 50 percent of meningococcal infections in Oregon.”
That percentage is lower nationwide. While Menomune lasts about three to five years, Menactra can be used as a booster, and, Ryan said, “research suggests a longer duration of activity … three to five times longer.”
While infants under age 1 are most at risk, the FDA reports that the number of meningitis cases peak again during adolescence and young adulthood. College freshmen living in dorms are six times more likely to be infected with the debilitating illness than others of the same age, according to the CDC.
A required dose of Menactra could have prevented the death of Jill Dieringer, a University freshman living in the residence halls who died of meningitis in 2001. Living in close proximity to others in her sorority, her infection could have easily spread to other students on campus.
In 2003, the death of one Eugene high school student and the illness of another were caused by bacterial meningitis linked to a show at WOW Hall that both girls attended. While the disease isn’t airborne like a cold or flu, activity involving the exchange of respiratory or throat secretions, such as sharing kitchen utensils, cigarettes or kissing, can pass it from one person to another. In addition to the high risk for students living in close quarters, students who smoke and frequent bars also show higher rates of infection.
If the virus form causes the illness, it’s less severe and may resolve itself. The bacterial form, however, must be treated immediately with antibiotics. The health center offers free antibiotics to students who have been exposed to meningitis. Treatment may reduce the risk of death to less than 15 percent. According to Sanofi Pasteur, the most common adverse reactions to Menactra include “pain, redness, and induration,” or hardening of the skin at the site of injection, as well as “headache, fatigue and malaise.” The vaccine is not recommended to anyone “with known hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine or to latex, which is used in the vile stopper.”
The FDA reports yearly case counts in the United States during the past four decades varying from 1,323 to 3,525. Meningitis, while rare, is a serious illness that kills approximately 1 percent of infected individuals. Of the survivors, about one in five suffer permanent disabilities, such as brain damage, hearing loss and limb amputation.
The early symptoms of meningitis can develop over several hours or days and may include high fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, discomfort looking into bright lights, confusion and sleepiness. Later, the infected patient may start to have seizures.

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