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USF Clinic Ramps Up Meningitis Inoculation

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 28, 2007

Updated: 11/28/2007 01:11 am

TAMPA - University of South Florida health leaders today are mass vaccinating students against bacterial meningitis as the school prepares to enact the most stringent vaccination policy of any Florida public university.

Starting in January, all USF students new to campus residence halls must receive the vaccine, Menactra, which protects against a disease that killed one of their schoolmates two months ago.

To help them comply, the university and the county health department are prepared to administer 1,000 doses of the vaccine at the Marshall Center student union this afternoon. Students 18 and younger can get the vaccine free; those 19 and older pay $90.

If the past eight weeks are any sign, demand for the vaccine will be high. Since the September death of sophomore Rachel Futterman, the USF health clinic has been administering meningitis vaccinations at a rate five times above normal.

Before September, the health clinic gave 15 to 20 doses of the vaccine every month. "It's not unusual for us to go through 100 a month now," said Egilda Terenzi, USF's student health director.

Futterman died two days after she suffered a seizure in the Delta Gamma sorority house where she lived. She contracted a strain of bacterial meningitis the vaccine guards against. USF President Judy Genshaft has said Futterman waived the vaccination a month before she died.
Bacterial meningitis is a contagious disease that inflames the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord. The disease affects about 3,000 Americans annually. For freshmen living in dormitories, the risk is higher: about five per 100,000 contract the disease, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Although Florida's university health directors acknowledge the risk, they're backing off of their initial talk of requiring that all new students be vaccinated.

According to student health directors, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Health said that the number of bacterial meningitis cases among the state's public university students - 22 since 2001, four of them fatal - doesn't warrant mandatory vaccination for all.

Those agencies, however, recommend the vaccination for younger students. Florida law currently requires the minimum CDC recommendation: Show students living on a public university campus the benefits of the vaccine, but allow them to opt out of taking it.

After discussing the issue Tuesday, the health directors proposed strengthening that policy to include all new students, regardless of whether they live on campus. The state's university oversight board will consider the proposal at its January meeting.

"I think a rational decision was made," said Phillip Barkley, director of the University of Florida student health center.

USF leaders, however, said they will require the vaccination of students living in its residence halls and Greek housing.

Students with a current housing contract won't have to comply with the requirement when it takes effect in January. But they'll have to get the vaccine if they plan to renew their contract for the next academic year.

Students must prove they received the vaccine before they're assigned to a campus residence hall. The university will consider medical or religious exemptions to the requirement only on a "case-by-case basis," Terenzi said.

Of the 4,310 USF students living on campus, 367 have shown they have received the vaccine, according to school figures compiled in November. An additional 2,488 say they can prove they got the shot.

"I think most students are getting pretty good information on this now, and are talking to their doctor," said Tom Kane, USF's dean of housing and residential education.

The new vaccine policy won't affect just campus residents, however. Students commuting to USF will have to prove that they've had the meningitis vaccine, or sign a waiver opting out. USF leaders say they will make that move regardless of what the state's university oversight board decides in January.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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