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TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: September 3, 2002
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For a small but growing number of college students, the undergraduate
experience now may include a close brush with one of the most frightening
infections on the planet: meningococcal disease. Long known as an illness of
early childhood, meningococcal disease has doubled among teenagers and young
adults in the United States during the last decade, striking college freshmen
in particular. The increase has been even more alarming in other
countries.
This program highlights one little-known protective measure that people can
take—a vaccine that provides immunity against four of the five major types
of meningococcal bacteria.
Most at risk from the disease are children under five and those from 15 to 24
years of age. College students living in dorms, especially during their first
year, have a higher incidence than non-students and those living in
less-congested quarters.
"Given the close quarters of freshman dorms, multiple strains of the bacteria
being brought by carriers from various areas of the country or even the world,
and the potential for a compromised immune system that first-year college
students can experience from late-night partying, exhaustion, and respiratory
infections, the risk for meningococcal disease is significantly heightened,"
says James C. Turner, M.D., Executive Director of Student Health Services at
the University of Virginia.
Meningococcal bacteria reside harmlessly in the back of the throat in about ten
percent of all adults. Only when the bacteria infiltrate the bloodstream—for
reasons still unclear—does trouble begin.
Meningococcal disease is notorious for the speed with which it attacks. The
program probes several cases at Michigan State University, where sophomore Adam
Busuttil felt fine one evening and hours later was fighting for his life. He
survived with tissue damage to his fingers and toes, which required amputation.
Jeffrey Paga, also of Michigan State, was not so lucky. His parents got a
midnight call from a roommate saying Jeffrey had a flu-like illness and had
taken painkillers and gone to bed. He was dead by morning.
The program also covers cases in England and New Zealand, where an upsurge in
meningococcal disease is being treated as a public health emergency.
Often incorrectly called meningitis, meningococcal disease can take several
forms, only one of which is actually meningitis. In cases of meningococcal
meningitis, the bacteria enter the lining of the brain and spinal cord, causing
dangerous swelling. Though extremely serious, this infection has a death rate
of only five percent compared with up to 40 percent for the form of the disease
called meningococcal septicemia. In these cases, the bacteria multiply rapidly
in the bloodstream, producing a deadly poison that quickly destroys small blood
vessels and damages the heart and other organs. Death can come in just hours,
as happened to Paga.
With about 3,000 cases a year in the United States, meningococcal disease is
still relatively rare. Nonetheless, it is every parent's worst nightmare.
"We're talking about a disease that could happen to any of our kids at any
given time," says Dr. Brett Giroir of the Children's Medical Center of Dallas.
"When you leave in the morning, your child is fine, and by the time you come
home from work your child could be dead. That's pretty frightening."
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