New York to require schoolkids receive meningitis vaccine
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The state Legislature has voted to add meningitis to the list of illnesses requiring immunizations for public-and private-school students.
The list already includes polio, mumps, measles, rubella, whooping cough, diphtheria, Hepatitis B, chicken pox, Haemophilus influenza and pneumococcal disease.
The bill passed by the state Assembly and Senate says the meningitis vaccination is required for students entering seventh or 12th grades in September 2016.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sponsors say a single dose is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at age 11 or 12 with a booster at age 16.
More than 20 states require the vaccine. The CDC says about 1,000 people annually get the disease and up to 15 percent die.
Infections inflame membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.