
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995                   TAG: 9506070062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MENINGITIS VACCINATION TOO COSTLY

Vaccinating college students against a bacterial infection that can cause dangerous meningitis wouldn't prevent enough illnesses to justify the multimillion-dollar price tag, the government has concluded.

Group C meningococcal germs live harmlessly in the noses and throats of up to 10 percent of all Americans and up to 20 percent of college students. Only when the germs invade the nervous system or bloodstream do people become sick.

Between 2,600 and 3,000 Americans, most under age 2, get Group C meningitis or blood poisoning annually, and about 10 percent die. A meningococcal vaccine is given only during outbreaks, because it doesn't help toddlers and only provides temporary protection.

But outbreaks have been increasing since 1991, particularly among teen-agers and young adults. After a series of small-campus outbreaks, the American College Health Association asked whether college students should routinely be vaccinated against meningococcal disease.

That would be prohibitively expensive, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded Tuesday in the American Journal of Public Health.

Vaccinating 2.3 million freshmen a year would cost $45 million - the cost of the vaccine minus the 1.3 illnesses per 100,000 students prevented, the CDC wrote. The rate of disease among college students would have to quintuple before vaccinating them would be practical, the agency said.

by CNB