Meningitis
Research
Foundation

National Meningitis
Association

Center for
Disease Control

WYOMING IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM (WIP)

How serious is bacterial meningitis?
Many victims suffer permanent disabilities, such as hearing loss, blindness, brain damage, or limb amputation. Numerous cases of meningitis disease have led to death.

Who is at risk?
Meningococcal meningitis strikes nearly 3,000 Americans each year. Recent data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that military personnel and college freshmen are at a six-fold increased risk of contracting the disease. This is due to crowded, communal living quarters, lifestyle, and irregular sleep patterns.

Is Meningococcal Meningitis preventable?
In most cases it is preventable. There are two vaccines available in the U.S. Meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (MPSV4 or Menomune) has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and available since 1981. Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4 or MenactraT) was licensed in 2005. Both vaccines can prevent four types of meningococcal diseases. Menactra is recommended by the CDC, because it lasts for 10 years. If it is not available, the CDC recommends Menomune, which lasts approximately three years.

Education and Vaccination Program
Pinedale, Wyoming

     The McKenzie Meningitis Foundation is an organization founded in Sublette County, Wyoming, in 2002, to promote awareness of the dangers of meningococcal meningitis and to help high school seniors be vaccinated against the disease. The foundation was set up to honor Sublette County's McKenzie Hartwig.
      In August 2001, McKenzie left home for the University of South Dakota, looking forward to all the challenges that college would bring. Just 18 years old, she anticipated an exciting life ahead of her; attending parties and making new friends, playing on the USD volleyball team, and pursing an international business degree that, she hoped, would eventually take her abroad to live.
      "That day, when we hugged and kissed her good-bye, I never, ever thought it would be the last time we would see her alive," says McKenzie's Mom, Laurie Hartwig. "There are always those nagging little thoughts in the back of every parent's mind: 'Wear your seatbelt, don't drink and drive, be careful of drugs.' We had always talked about those kinds of dangers to both of our kids."
      But the one danger the Hartwigs never even considered was meningococcal meningitis. The disease is a bacterial infection that causes severe swelling of the brain and spinal cord coverings and can result in death or long-term disabilities such as brain damage, sight and hearing loss, and limb amputations. It affects more than 3,000 people in the United States each year. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the past decades the disease has been spreading among adolescents and young adults. College students living in dormitories are at particular risk, due to their crowded living conditions, irregular eating and sleeping habits, and compromised immune systems.
      A majority of the cases of meningitis on college campuses today could be prevented with a simple vaccination. Most military recruits are now given the vaccination, and the military academies require it for incoming freshmen. But other college-bound students, like McKenzie Hartwig, often do not even know of the risk. The CDC recommends all children be vaccinated at their routine preadolescent visit (11 to 12 years of age). For those who have never been vaccinated, a dose is recommended at high school entry. Other adolescents who want to decrease their risk of meningococcal disease can also get the vaccine. Other people at increased risk for whom routine vaccination is recommended are college freshmen living in dormitories, microbiologists who are routinely exposed to meningococcal bacteria. U.S. military recruits, anyone who has a damaged spleen or whose spleen has been removed; anyone who has terminal complement component deficiency (an immune system disorder), anyone who is traveling to the countries which have an outbreak of meningococcal disease, and those who might have been exposed to meningitis during an outbreak.
      To aid in that effort, one year after McKenzie's death, Ken and Laurie Hartwig started The McKenzie Meningitis Foundation. "We wanted to do something," says Ken Hartwig. "We wanted to turn McKenzie's tragic death into something positive and meaningful, and we feel this is a major step forward.
      "The mission of The McKenzie Meningitis Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, is to pursue charitable, medical, educational and scientific projects in honor of McKenzie Carter Hartwig. In the spring of 2003, the foundation provided the vaccine to all graduating seniors in Sublette County, Wyoming, and continued to do so until 2006. At that time, at the urging of the foundation, the State of Wyoming agreed to include the meningitis vaccination in its Wyoming Immunization Program. The foundation now provides financial assistance for those who cannot afford the co-pay. In addition, we are actively working to educate people about meningitis, and the need to be vaccinated against it, in Wyoming and other states. The foundation also helped the National Meningitis Foundation produce an award winning educational video. "Getting It: A Disease... A Vaccine" along with educational packets for school health classes.
      "We are devastated and heartbroken, particularly since we have found out that this tragedy could have been prevented," Laurie Hartwig explains. "We don't want any parent to go through the suffering and anguish that we are experiencing."