Ivy League Meningococcus Arrives in Santa Barbara

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, four students came down with meningococcal disease all in the same three-week period in November of this year. The first student is now permanently disabled and is still in the hospital, but two others have recovered and are healthy enough to return to classes. The fourth is also expected to recover. The four students contracted the type B form of the bacteria, which is the same strain that is causing an outbreak of meningitis at Princeton University. Princeton is currently making available to their students a vaccine for the special strain of bacteria called Bexsero, produced by Novartis. The vaccine is not approved in the United States but has been cleared for use in Europe and Australia.

Meningococcal disease is caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, also called meningococcus. This disease is different from the more well-known meningitis. Meningococcal disease can develop into meningitis, but it can also cause blood infections that develop into sepsis. Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, or the membranes that cover the brain and the spinal chord, and can be caused by a number of things, such as physical trauma, cancer, and even certain drugs.

A picture of N. meningitidis, from Bioquell's page about the bacterium.

Meningitis symptoms include headache, fever, vomiting, a stiff neck, rashes, confusion, and increased sensitivity to light. If untreated, it can cause hearing and brain damage, limb amputations, and can eventually be fatal. Because the bacteria is spread through saliva and respiratory droplets, UCSB is asking all of its fraternities and sororities to keep from having large parties, where cups could move from one person to another.

Bacterial meningitis is a rare form of meningitis, and the sort caused by the type B strain of N. meningitidis is even rarer. The article states that "in 2012, there were 480 cases of bacterial meningitis in the United States, according to the CDC. Of those, 160 were group B." Only 1/3 of bacterial meningitis cases in the U.S. last year were type B. It is so rare that the U.S. does not even have a vaccine that protects against this strain, which is why Princeton made an unlicensed vaccine available to their students.

I thought I'd share this news because reminded me of the 2012 meningitis outbreak in Massachusetts that was linked to contaminated medication. However, this has different implications for the people involved. In Massachusetts, we could blame the outbreak on the mistakes of pharmaceutical companies, but in California and New Jersey, there is no one to blame, nothing to distract from the struggle to keep the outbreak from turning into a full-fledged epidemic.

I think Princeton's decision to give their students the option of getting the type B vaccine was a good call, despite it not being licensed for use in the U.S. The vaccine is not untested; after all, both Europe and Australia have cleared its use. Also, as I previously mentioned, there is no licensed vaccine for meningitis B in the U.S. Being able to have this method of protecting themselves provides a level of comfort and security for those at Princeton who have not yet been infected.

Also, how the bacterium spreads (via saliva and respiratory droplets) reminded me of how smallpox spreads. Now eradicated, smallpox was spread through respiratory droplets, and it left its mark on the world. If this meningococcal outbreak reaches the extent of some of history's smallpox epidemics, it could devastate the United States. However, that will probably never happen. We have far better health care today than ever in the past, and our knowledge of how diseases are spread and how to treat different diseases has increased to such an extent that death tolls like those seen in the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 are few and far between.


Thanks to everyone who read through everything and managed to get down this far. Here's the original article, for anyone who's interested in reading it themselves:
"4th case of meningococcal disease at UCSB" by Elizabeth Landau, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/03/health/santa-barbara-illness/

If you want to learn more about meningococcal disease and/or how to protect yourself from it, the Centers for Disease Control has a page all about it that you can find here: http://www.cdc.gov/meningococcal/