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What Parents Need to Know About Meningitis
A Sobering Reminder of Why Vaccines Are Indeed Important
Vaccine-preventable diseases, such as meningitis, continue to impact our communities, including schools and college campuses. Before your kids head back to school for the spring semester, schedule a wellness visit to talk to their doctor about the two different types of meningitis vaccines needed to help protect against the five vaccine-preventable groups of meningitis.
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GSK spokesperson Patsy Schanbaum’s daughter, Jamie, was a college freshman when she contracted meningococcal disease, also known as meningitis.
“I got the call that every parent hopes they never get — their child has been hospitalized and it’s an emergency. By the time I got to the hospital that night, Jamie was in an induced coma, fighting for her life.”
Jamie was diagnosed with meningitis and, to help stop the spread of the disease, the doctors amputated both legs below the knee and her fingers.
