What is Meningitis? Short answer is that it meningococcal disease is a leading cause of meningitis-an infection of the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord and sepsis which is a life-threating bloodstream infection. This disease is among the leading causes of preventable infant death in the U.S. with approximately 50-60% of these cases are vaccine preventable.
- According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the meningococcal disease is 3-7 times higher in infants under 1 year old with the highest risk in the first 7 months of life.
- Approximately 1 in 16 infants who contract the disease will die from it.
- There are more deaths from this disease then from other disease that babies currently receive vaccination for.
What is being done?
- FDA (Federal Drug Administration) recently approved a vaccine to prevent meningococcal disease in infants as young as 9 months old.
- CDC has recommended its use in high risk infants.
- CDC has not made the recommendation for this vaccine to be used in all infants, as of yet.
- The national non-profit organization Meningitis Angles educates the public, health professionals, child care facilities, etc on this disease and that it does have a vaccine to prevent it. It was created in honor and memory of those whose lives were affected by this disease.
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Check out the Protect Infants Now (PIN) petition and sign.
I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central and Meningitis Angels. This campaign was made possible in part through support provided by Novartis Vaccines. A small donation to a charity of my choice was made in my name from Mom Central as a thank-you for participating. All opinions in this posting are 100% my own.
Our daughter (now 32 yrs old) made medical history at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital when she was 5 & 6 months old. She was the only baby who had meningitis TWICE. She was also the first baby to have the meningitis at Vandy who never had any residual effect from it. The vaccine that is available now was in the test stage when Ashley had meningitis. She received that vaccine and we feel that it saved her life as she was a carrier. Children acquire the natural immunity after the age of 2. We are certainly grateful to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and to our pediatrician for their care and lifesaving treatment of our daughter.
ReplyDeleteBeckie in Brentwood, TN