Princeton University approves Meningitis B vaccine

Princeton University officials decided Monday to make available a meningitis vaccine – which has not been widely approved in the United States – to stop the spread of the sometimes deadly disease on campus.

Meningitis can be transmitted through kissing, coughing or lengthy contact. Campuses, with their concentration of young adults in close quarters, make dangerous breeding grounds for the bacteria.

Princeton said doses of the vaccine for type B meningococcal bacteria are to be available in December and February for all undergraduate students, graduate students who live in dormitories, and university employees who have sickle cell disease and other medical conditions that might make them more susceptible to meningitis. The university said the plan was recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The vaccinations are to be paid for by the university and are not mandatory. Officials said they are most effective in two doses.

Seven meningitis cases have been confirmed on the New Jersey campus since March, with six students and a visitor diagnosed and the most recent case reported last week. None of the cases has been fatal.

The New York Times reported that almost all undergraduates at Princeton and other four-year colleges in the state are already required to be vaccinated against meningitis, according to New Jersey law. But the type of the illness currently afflicting Princeton is not covered by the vaccine that is widely available in the U.S. and has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the newspaper said.

Last week, the FDA approved importing the vaccine, Bexsero, for use at the Ivy League school for the type B disease, though it remains in the approval process in the wider U.S. market.

The CDC says the outbreak at Princeton is the first in the world since the vaccine against the type B meningococcal bacteria was approved in Europe and Australia this year. The vaccine is the only one known for use against the strain. 

Bacterial meningitis is a disease that can cause swelling of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Those who get it develop symptoms quickly and can die in a couple of days. Survivors can suffer mental disabilities, hearing loss and paralysis.

The B strain is among the most common in Europe, and last year accounted for 160 of the 480 meningitis cases in the U.S. tallied by the CDC. About one in 10 young adults with the strain dies. One in five develops a permanent disability.

As a precaution, Princeton has told students to wash their hands, cover their mouths when coughing and not share items such as drinking glasses and eating utensils.

Students on campus were mostly calm about the possibility of being given a not-yet-approved vaccine.

"I'm honestly not too worried," said Paul Przytycki, a 23-year-old graduate student in computer science from Bethesda, Md. "When the vaccines come in, I'm going to get vaccinated just to be safe, but no one I know has been affected, so it's not too scary yet."

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press