Meningitis shot required for college students

PHARR – Jose Rivera vaguely remembers the last time he saw his brother, Tomas Rivera, three years ago.

The two Pharr natives lived in Riverside, Calif., and attended different colleges but shared an apartment with three other students. Jose Rivera, now 28, said all five liked to party.

“It was the night before I came home (to Pharr) for summer break,” he recalled, “and we stayed up most of the night drinking pretty hard.

“Tomas was a riot – he always was a riot – but if I knew it was our last night to hang out, I would have wanted to do something different,” Rivera said.

When he woke up in a drunken blur the next morning, he hastily had a roommate drive him to the airport without saying goodbye to his brother.

Two weeks later, the Rivera family received a call from a hospital informing them that Tomas had contracted meningitis, a serious bacterial infection that claimed the young man’s life within two days.

“We could only afford to get my mom out there to say goodbye,” Rivera said. “We have no idea how he got it and why none of the rest of us (in the apartment) didn’t.

“I wish we were required to get vaccinated there” in California, he said. “Every Texas student should be thankful there’s a law meant to protect them.”

Rivera referred to the Senate Bill 1107, which state legislators passed this year to require a bacterial meningitis vaccination or booster dose for every incoming college freshmen and transfer students under age 30.

The Texas Department of State Health Services states people who live in close quarters, like students, and those who abuse alcohol and have a weakened immune system have a high risk for bacterial meningitis.

A previous version of the law only affected students living on campus, though a Texas A&M student’s death in February spurred an expansion of the vaccination requirement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of meningitis – including high fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, confusion and sleepiness – can appear in anyone older than 2 years of age and rapidly develop over a few hours or one to two days. Undiagnosed, the disease can result in brain damage, hearing loss, learning disabilities, loss of limbs and even death, as in the case of Tomas Rivera.

“Bacterial meningitis is a very serious, sometimes fatal, disease that is easily spread on college campuses, and we are trying to take all of the proper precautions to protect the health and well-being of our students,” said Kim McKay, interim dean of enrollment services at South Texas College.

The new law goes into effect Jan. 1, and STC will begin requiring proof of vaccination by Friday, Jan. 27.

Acceptable forms of evidence include an official immunization record, school vaccination record or the signature or stamp of a physician or health official showing the month, day and year the vaccination or booster was administered.

The University of Texas-Pan American will require similar documents, though students can get a “refusal of immunization for medical reasons,” signed by a licensed physician with an explanation that the vaccination could somehow injure the student.

Though California requires meningitis vaccinations for 11- and 12-year-old students – with a booster dose at 16 – it does not go as far as Texas law. And while other states only attempt to make students aware of the vaccine, Texas is the only state to require the vaccination in order to attend college.

 “I graduated a year after Tomas died,” Rivera said, “but I still got vaccinated. It hurt, yeah. There was a needle involved.

“A small prick (of a needle) could have saved my brother’s life though.”

Texas students must receive a vaccination during the five-year period before, or at least 10 days prior to, the first day of the semester.

Vaccinations will be offered at the UTPA Student Health Services Center for $90, though students also can see their private physicians for the immunization.

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at nmorton@themonitor.com or (956) 683-4472.