Transcript
Announcer:
You’re listening to VacciNation on ReachMD. On this episode, we’ll hear from Dr. William Schaffner, who’s a Professor of Preventative Medicine and Health Policy as well as a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. He’ll be discussing the importance of counseling young patients and their families about meningitis B vaccination. Here’s Dr. Schaffner now.
Dr. Schaffner:
I think it's very important for we healthcare professionals to keep meningitis B on our radar when we're caring for adolescents and young adults because we ought to remember that the occurrence and the frequency of this relatively rare but terrible infection—meningitis, meningococcal meningitis—increases during adolescence and young adulthood.
That's one of the times during the age spectrum when this infection occurs most frequently. And we know that meningococcal meningitis is not a single entity, because the meningococci are a group of infections. They have several subgroups designated with the alphabetical letters, and the most common ones are included together in one vaccine: ACWY. But group B was a scientific challenge. It took much longer to develop a vaccine, and so now we have a couple of self-standing meningococcal B vaccines. So we have to think about using them both during adolescence.
It's clear that meningococcal meningitis is uncommon. That's fortunate. It used to be much more common and much more recognized and feared, but it still occurs. Even though the disease is rare, you don't want to take that risk, and having a conversation with the parents and the adolescent so that they recognize that there is a real risk—particularly if you're going to college and you're going to live in a dormitory—that this infection, albeit rare, could occur, is important. But we have a vaccine that provides really pretty good protection against these illnesses, and it's well worth getting before you pack your bags and head off to college.
Announcer:
That was Dr. William Schaffner talking about why it’s so important to counsel young patients and their families about meningitis B vaccination. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit VacciNation on ReachMD.com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!
