Meningitis What You Need To Know

By Tareq Abedin, MD

Ashburn Sterling Internal Medicine & Pediatrics

. http://www.myhealthcare.org/

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Meningitis What You Need To Know

Meningitis is a word that usually provokes a lot of fear. The word means infection of the lining of the brain. In years past,many people did die of meningitis, but with recent advances in vaccine development, the number of cases of meningitis has declinedsignificantly.

Many different bacteria can cause meningitis. Young children are usually affected by Streptococcus and Haemophilus. Fortunately with the advent of the HiB and Prevnar vaccines, werarelysee invasive infections like infections of the blood, brain and lungs in young children and infants today. In fact, before the advent of these vaccines we used to have to perform cultures of the blood, urine and spinal fluid on all young infants with fevers to determine if they had these serious infections.

Most children receive the Hib and Prevnar vaccinations infancy to prevent these devastating infections. This is why we recommend that parent's schedule an appointment for a well-child appointment so that the vaccinations their child has had is up to date or a catch-up schedule can be discussed.

Older teenagers, especially ones in crowded situations, can also be infected by Neisseria. The CDC already advises routine immunization with Menactra, a vaccine for Neisseria serotypes A, C, Y W. However, the teenage who recently died from this type of meningitis died of serotype B. This is a serotype that is not covered by the usual vaccines given in the past 20 years. Please also keep in mind that this type of infection is transmitted only by body fluids so it take more than casual contact to get this infection.

Bexero (Novartis) is a new vaccine that was approved just last year for the protection of Neisseria meningitis serotype B. As it is a new vaccine, it may not be covered by your insurance company, but should be effective against this strain of meningitis. Although the CDC has approved the vaccine for use, it has not made any recommendation for its routine use in the immunization schedule. The American College of Infection Disease is supposed to make a formal recommendation as to how the vaccine should be used later this summer.

The dilemma is that many of you will only have your children home from college during the summer, before the formal recommendations are made and published. I can only state that the vaccine is available, and that you may wish to consider giving the first of three doses this summer if your insurance company will cover it.The out of pockets costs for this vaccine is around $150 per dose so the decision is certainly an investment.