Texas Meningitis Vaccination Law Takes Effect
What do college students and preschoolers have in common?
Among other things, both are at high risk for meningococcal disease, or meningitis, but now the big kids must get vaccinated for it.
Gov. Rick Perry signed into law last session a requirement that students headed to college for the first time get vaccinated for bacterial meningitis before move-in day. The law took effect Jan. 1, which means when dorms open at the University of Texas next month — or at any other Texas university this fall — freshmen will need proof they got their shots.
The law is named for Jamie Schanbaum ...
Comments (2)
Dawn
The vaccine is not safe for everyone and it has caused serious reactions in some students. Meningitis in college students is extremely rare and parents need to carefully consider benefits and risks of the vaccine and not blindly get the shot for their college freshman just because this article says they should.
Unfortunately this article fails to mention that Texas state law allows for college students to use a conscientious vaccine exemption form obtained from the state health department and submitted to the college or a medical exemption letter written by a doctor and submitted to the school if they don't want to take the shot. This article misleads families into thinking they absolutely have to get the shot even if they have concerns about its safety for their child. Please do a correction with the appropriate information and links to where parents can get the exemption form as well as an account of some of the serious side effects that have been reported to the FDA and CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
Yes the law requires the shot, but it also allows for an exemption for someone who doesn't want it and that information should have been conveyed here. Thank you for considering this information.
Elizabeth Titus
Dawn, that's a helpful point. Language on the exemption is here, in the text of the bill: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HB04189F.htm. The state exemption form for minors is here: https://webds.dshs.state.tx.us/immco/affidavit.shtm. And an example of an exemption process, this one from Texas State, is here: http://www.reslife.txstate.edu/new-students/Bacterial-Meningitis-Vaccination-Requirement.html.