Law on student #vaccination in the US for #bacterial #meningitis

A Friday feel-good (or not) story about a new piece of legislation passed in the Sates requiring every college student to be vaccinated against bacterial meningitis, saving lives and enabling young people to fulfil their dreams safe from preventable diseases.

The Jamie Schanbaum Act of 2009 came into effect in Texas after after Gov. Rick Perry signed the second bill named for Ms. Schanbaum into law in May.

I got a bit of goose bumps reading her story:

Among the things 22-year old Jamie Schanbaum could not have anticipated three years ago was standing two inches taller, winning a national Paralympic gold medal in cycling and reveling in the Texas Legislature’s passage of two bills in her honor. Those gains, however, came after significant losses — most noticeably of both legs below the knee and much of each finger, the result of a bout with meningococcal septicemia in her sophomore year at the University of Texas.

Ms. Schanbaum underwent numerous operations during months in the hospital, where the onset of a flesh-eating bacteria ultimately necessitated the amputations.

“It could have been worse,” Ms. Schanbaum said. “I could have been blind. I could have been deaf. I could have had brain damage. I could have died. I wouldn’t say I feel unlucky at all. I would say I consider this significant.”

Other affected students and their parents are now concentrating their efforts to expand the reach of the law to other US States.

The whole article is published in the New York Times and available to read here. Worth while 10 minutes on a Friday afternoon.