In a move that will directly impact the healthcare of thousands of college students, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new recommendation for meningococcal vaccinations on Oct. 23.
The recommendation states that “young adults aged 16 to 23 years may be vaccinated with a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine,” and it follows the approval of two new serogroup B vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. According to the recommendation, the preferred age for vaccination is ages 16 to 18, and the vaccines provide “short-term protection against most strains of serogroup B meningococcal disease.”
Serogroup B is one of the most heavily transmitted types of meningococcal disease on college campuses within the U.S. Since 2009, the CDC reported seven outbreaks on various college campuses, each one leading to two to 13 cases of the disease in each instance, which resulted in a total of 41 cases and three deaths.
This stems from the fact that Serogroup B is one of the strains of meningococcal disease not protected against in the conventional MenACWY vaccine that is recommended for everyone aged 11 to 18.
The MenACWY vaccine is one of the vaccines mandated for students living on campus at USC, but students can choose to exempt themselves from it without providing a reason with only a personal signature or that of a parent or guardian if under 18.