In the past few weeks, Princeton University has found itself a hot topic in the media for what has now been described as an outbreak of meningitis B1. Although Princeton currently requires all students to be vaccinated against meningitis, the current vaccine does not protect against serogroup B. There is no currently approved vaccine against serogroup B, but Bexsero, a Novartis-produced vaccine that has been licensed in Europe and Australia, has been granted special approval for use on our campus, due to the nature of the outbreak.
Meningitis is an infection in the membrane layers surrounding the brain and the spinal cord called the meninges. It is airborne and is spread through close contact such as coughing or sneezing. The outbreak is related to type B (serogroup B) meningococcal bacteria which is the cause of the eight cases of meningitis at the University. The vaccine Bexsero has recently been developed and licensed in Europe and Australia to protect against type B (serogroup B) meningococcal disease. As has been announced by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Princeton University, the meningitis cases have been declared to be an outbreak. As a result, the CDC is importing Bexsero for use among students at Princeton University.
For the past nine months, Princeton University has been trying to halt an outbreak of bacterial meningitis in its students without success. Since bacterial meningitis is a serious infection of the brain and spinal cord that can cause brain damage and death, having it on campus is no small matter.
On Friday, November 22, the eighth case of meningitis was reported at Princeton University. This case, like the seven previous ones confirmed at Princeton over the past nine months, was shown to be caused by a rare meningococcal bacterium known as serotype B. While this may be regarded as a small number in a campus of 5,000 undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students, what worries public health officials is that meningitis is a rare disease. Moreover, group B is particularly rare in the United States.
