The vaccination against a potentially deadly strain of meningitis is not required by Arizona universities. Prompted by two recent outbreaks in other states, a national committee may change that.
On Wednesday morning, the Center for Disease Control ’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, meets to recommend whether or not to require all U.S. college students be vaccinated against meningitis B.
Outbreaks at the University of Oregon and Princeton have led to one death and costly measures from each school to vaccinate their entire campus because meningitis B vaccines are not covered by health insurance. While 38 states mandate students have the meningitis B vaccine before college, Arizona is not one of them.
Will Humble, former director of Arizona Department of Health Services and now with UA, said the CDC will most likely agree with the committee's recommendation.
“Once it get’s onto the CDC list, most commercial health plans at that point will also begin covering the vaccine," said Humble. "So this is a really important vote by the ACIP. If they make a recommendation to add it to the list, it will be a standard vaccine most likely throughout the U.S.”
UA, NAU and ASU all have sent letters to the ACIP urging recommendation for coverage.
