Healthy Outlook Blog

Meningitis: Dorm Danger for College Freshmen

By Melba Newsome | Posted September 27 2010

college students, disease, education, meningococcal meningitis, Prevention, vaccine

In 2001, 18 year-old McKenzie Hartwig was a beautiful honor student and athlete with her entire life ahead of her. But a few weeks into her freshman year at the University of South Dakota, McKenzie fell ill during a volleyball tournament and died later that night. Nine years later, the pain of that loss still haunts the Hartwig family, in large part because a simple immunization could have saved McKenzie’s life.

McKenzie died from meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection that causes inflammation and swelling of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.

“It was devastating,” says her mother, Laurie Hartwig. “We didn’t know a single thing about meningitis and it never crossed our minds that our daughter could be at risk.”

College students like McKenzie are susceptible to the disease due to certain lifestyle factors like crowded living conditions such as dormitories and boarding schools. The disease is spread by close contact with an infected person or through the air when someone with the disease coughs or sneezes.

On average, 11 percent of the 1,500 Americans infected with the disease each year will die. Among those who survive, approximately 20 percent suffer long-term consequences, such as brain damage, kidney disease, hearing loss or amputations. The good news is that the majority of these infections are preventable with the vaccine that protects against four of the five most common strains of meningococcal disease.

Knowing that McKenzie’s death was preventable spurred Laurie Hartwig to join the National Meningitis Association’s Moms on Meningitis, a coalition of mothers who have either lost children or whose children’s lives have been drastically affected by the disease.

“Our ultimate objective is to spread the word about the vaccine so that parents don’t have to go through such pain and suffering because it’s preventable,” says Hartwig. “You have immunization records on your child from infancy. When they’re 12-18, this is the next group of immunization to keep them healthy.”

To date, 40 states have enacted legislation that requires college freshmen be immunized against the disease or informed about the risk.

“I think that probably only 25% of people probably know about this,” says Hartwig. “We still have a lot of education to do.”

CONNECT THE DOTS

The Hartwig family established the Menkenzie Meningitis Foundation to promote awareness about the disease and the importance of immunization.

Learn more about the disease from the Meningitis Foundation of America and the National Meningitis Association, which also offers an educational video, Getting It: A Disease…A Vaccine that features stories of meningococcal disease survivors and families affected by the disease.

Find out what your state is doing to combat these unnecessary tragedies.

ABOUT OUR BLOG

Our blog is a collection of thoughts and stories that serve as inspiration for what healthymagination is—a shared commitment to creating better health for more people. It’s written by the people behind healthymagination, as well as members of our advisory board and guest contributors from around the web.

You might like

Donna Karan’s Urban Zen FoundationCelebrated clothing designer Donna Karan has no problem connecting the worlds of creativity, culture and quality healthcare. She created a foundation, Urban Zen (UZ), as a vehicle for persuading healthcare centers to do just that, partly by introducing integrative medicine to “normal” patient care.
How Do I love Me? Let Me Count the Ways, and Also Ace That InterviewA high opinion of yourself—and willingness to toot your own horn—may not make you loveable in all situations, but narcissistic traits may pay off for job seekers. In a study to be published in Journal of Applied Social Psychology, narcissists scored much higher in simulated job interviews than non-narcissists. “This is one setting where it’s [...]
Can Silence Enhance Health?Dr. Prochnik reviewed many scientific studies and found that exposure to even low-level constant noise causes an elevated heart rate and blood pressure and a constant release of stress hormones such as cortisol.