A Mother’s Personal Story: Get Vaccinated Against Meningitis
By Lynn Bozof
Lynn Bozof is one of five founding members of the National Meningitis Association.
It’s great news that there is now a second vaccine licensed for meningococcal meningitis. Unfortunately, I know from personal experience that meningococcal meningitis is a killer disease. I lost my 20 year old son, Evan, to meningitis, not knowing that his life could have been saved by a vaccine. Evan had all the vaccines that were recommended before he started college, but no one told us about meningitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends routine vaccination for all 11-18 year olds and for college freshmen living in dorms, at the earliest possible opportunity. I never thought that tragedy would strike my family, but it did. I will never get over the loss of my son, and I don’t want others to suffer the same tragedy, as there is a safe, effective vaccine available. Please visit the National Meningitis Association Web site, www.nmaus.org for more information.
While vaccination is very inportant we also need to understand that reactions happen. Some 50000 reactions to H1N1 Happened from 11/2009 to 12/2009 then at the start of 2010 we have had some 17000 in less than 2 months. Information can be found at VAERS.hhs.Gov
Generally, VAERS cannot determine if an adverse event was caused by a vaccine but can help determine if further investigations are needed. FDA and CDC use VAERS data to help identify potential clinically serious vaccine adverse events or health outcomes. The department of health and human services appointed an H1N1 vaccine safety committee to rapidly analyze the data regarding reactions to the vaccine and thus far have reported NO relationship between serious side effects and the vaccine. I’d suggest following this link for the full info on this issue though. http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/reports/2010vaccinesafetyreport.html