Researchers led by Dr. Sarah Mbaeyi from the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said “the finding highlights the urgent need to ensure that all students get vaccinated against the disease before they head off to a university”.

The findings were published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. They found that students aged 18 to 24 were 3.5 times more likely to contract meningitis B than their peers who were not in school. Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City explained that “The combination of factors can make meningococcal meningitis B lethal in less than 24 hours.”

Dr. Lucila Marquez, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, in Houston, states “vaccination is the only reliable means of preventing devastating meningococcal disease”.

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