Meningitis vaccine urged for summer campers

NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) Children heading to sleep-away camp -- just like those going away to college -- face an increased risk of contracting bacterial meningitis, warns a mother whose son nearly died of the infection.

So parents should protect their kids by making sure they get the meningococcal vaccine, Nancy Springer, a founding member of the non-profit National Meningitis Association (NMA) living in Westchester County, New York, told Reuters Health.

''Don't be afraid of sending your child to camp, but be an educated parent,'' Springer said in an interview.

Up to 3,000 people in the US contract meningococcal disease each year, 30% of whom are teens and young adults, according to the NMA. One quarter of adolescents with the infection will die, while up to one fifth of survivors will be permanently disabled.

Springer's son Nick became ill with meningococcal meningitis in August 1999, while away at summer camp in Massachusetts. After a doctor diagnosed the infection, the 14-year-old received IV antibiotics and was sent to the hospital. Soon afterwards, he was airlifted to a hospital with a burn unit, where he spent two months in a drug-induced coma.

After he awoke, doctors amputated both his legs above the knees and both arms below the elbows.

Nick Springer is now a junior in college in Florida and a member of the US Wheelchair Paralympic Rugby Team, which won the recent World Cup games in New Zealand. ''He's doing just great,'' his mother said. ''We're very grateful.'' Springer formed the NMA with four other parents whose children had been struck by meningococcal meningitis. She wasn't aware of the vaccine before sending Nick to camp, Springer says, but would have made sure he'd gotten it if she had been.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta now recommends the meningococcal meningitis vaccine for all children 11 to 12 years old, and for young people entering high school or college who haven't previously had the shot. The vaccine protects against four of the five strains of bacteria that cause the infection, and is up to 83% effective.

Because the vaccine isn't a 100% guarantee of protection, Springer notes, children should be warned against activities that can spread the bug, for example drinking out of the same water bottle or sharing lip gloss.

The vaccine is particularly crucial, she added, because the infection strikes so rapidly and can easily be mistaken for the flu. Symptoms include vomiting and fever, and many people don't have the stiff neck thought to be the hallmark of meningitis.

''That's the danger of this disease,'' Springer explained. ''The onset is so sudden and extreme that when a doctor hopefully makes the diagnosis, you are hours away from death.'' REUTERS AE VV0900