A vital vaccine Meningitis shots available at UI's McKinley Center

URBANA – Students, do you know how to stay healthy at college?

You may know to eat right to avoid gaining the Freshman 15. You've heard about the dangers of binge drinking. And you have strategies to reduce stress during final exams.

But do you know how to protect yourself from meningitis?

College students, especially those living in dorms, have a higher risk of contracting the disease – an infection of the fluid in the spinal cord and surrounding the brain. Meningitis can be caused by a virus or bacteria, but the bacterial forms are generally more severe and can cause brain damage, hearing loss, neurological problems, and loss of limbs. Vaccines are available to cover four of the five strains of bacteria causing the disease.

Bacterial meningitis can be transmitted by close contact, such as kissing or sharing a drink, and those living in close residential quarters are particularly at risk. Symptoms are usually a high fever, headache and stiff neck. They also can include nausea, vomiting, confusion and sleepiness.

A University of Illinois freshman, Erica Van Zuidam, contracted bacterial meningitis in May 2005. She survived but had to have her hands and feet amputated.

In March 1999, an Eastern Illinois University student, 19-year-old Beth Miller of Coal City, died from meningitis. Her death resulted in a law, which went into effect in 2002, requiring all Illinois public universities to inform incoming students about meningitis and its transmission and to offer the vaccine. Students are not required to get the vaccine, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved new recommendations last year calling for all college students living in dorms to be vaccinated against meningitis.

The UI offers a meningitis vaccine at McKinley Health Center's Immunization and Travel Clinic. For students who have paid the health service fee, the cost of the vaccine is $30.

"We want students to get the vaccine. That's why we make it as inexpensive as we can," said Dr. Robert Palinkas, director of McKinley Health Center. He said the vaccine costs the UI $90 a dose.

"Every time we give it, we lose $60 – but we sleep better," he said.

McKinley employees offer the vaccine at summer orientation sessions. This summer, the health center had vaccinated about 400 students by the beginning of August. That's fewer than in the past, but that didn't surprise Palinkas.

"We are noticing more and more students are coming in vaccinated. Primary care doctors were quick to jump on it and give (the vaccine)," he said.

The UI offers a new, longer-lasting version of the vaccine called Menactra. Palinkas said Menactra is thought to be effective for at least 10 years, while other versions of the vaccine last three to five years.

"By the time it wears off, most people will be out of the risk period, so it might be good as a one-shot deal," Palinkas said of Menactra.

Earlier in the summer, supplies of the vaccine were running low, but the manufacturer temporarily diverted its stock from private-practice doctors to college health centers, Palinkas said. The UI now has enough of the vaccine to last through the school year, he said.