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People walk around the Princeton University campus in New Jersey. A meningitis vaccine approved for use in Europe and Australia but not in the United States can be imported to try to stop an outbreak of the disease at Princeton University in New Jersey, federal health officials said.
PRINCETON, N.J.— Princeton University officials decided Monday to make available a meningitis vaccine that hasn’t been approved in the U.S. to stop the spread of the sometimes deadly disease on campus.
The university said doses of the vaccine for the type B meningococcal bacteria are to be available in December and February for all undergraduate students, graduate students who live in dorms and university employees who have sickle cell disease and other medical conditions that make them more susceptible to meningitis. The university said the plan was recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccinations are to be paid for by the university and are not mandatory. Officials say they are most effective in two doses.
Since March, seven cases of meningitis have been confirmed on the New Jersey campus with six students and a visitor diagnosed, the most recent last week. None of the cases has been fatal.
Last week, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved importing the vaccine, Bexsero, for possible use at the Ivy League school.
The Centers for Disease Control says the outbreak at Princeton is the first in the world since the vaccine against the type B meningococcal bacteria was approved in Europe and Australia this year, the only one for use against the strain. The vaccine is in the approval process in the U.S.
RELATED: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY MENINGITIS OUTBREAK: SEVEN CASES FOUND
Princeton University officials will offer doses of Bexsero, a drug not yet approved for use in the U.S., to try and stop the spread of meningitis on the Ivy League campus.
The B strain is among the most common in Europe and also has been found frequently in the U.S. Last year, for instance, it accounted for 160 of the 480 meningitis cases in the U.S. tallied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in 10 young adults with the strain dies. One in five develops a permanent disability.
Under New Jersey state law, students who live in dorms must have vaccinations against other strains of meningitis. But a different type of vaccine is needed for type B, said Pritish Tosh, a Mayo Clinic researcher who develops vaccines. He said that Bexsero, sold by Novartis, has had good results so far where it has been used.
“Since there is a product available,” he said, “it makes a lot of sense of me if the public health authorities go for it.”
Meningitis can be spread through kissing, coughing or lengthy contact. Campuses, with their concentration of young adults in close quarters, make dangerous breeding grounds for the bacteria.
Princeton school told students to wash their hands, cover their mouths when coughing and not share items such as drinking glasses and eating utensils.
On campus, students were mostly calm about the possibility of being given a not-yet-approved vaccine.
“I’m honestly not too worried,” said Paul Przytycki, a 23-year-old graduate student in computer science from Bethesda, Md. “When the vaccines come in, I’m going to get vaccinated just to be safe, but no one I know has been affected, so it’s not too scary yet.”
