Meningitis Vaccine Will Be Imported to Curb Outbreak at Princeton

Following type B meningitis outbreak among student body

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Updated Nov. 16, 2013, 5:06 p.m.

The Food and Drug Administration is agreeing to import a meningitis vaccine that is approved in Europe and Australia but not the United States, in an effort to contain an outbreak on Princeton University’s campus.

School officials have been working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the New Jersey Department of Health since the outbreak began in March, Reuters reports. A total of six students and one campus visitor have been diagnosed, including the most recent case of a male student on Nov. 8. The student is still being hospitalized, while the other on-campus patients have recovered, CNN reports. The visiting patient is being monitored by another state health department, according to Reuters.

It is unclear when Bexsero, a vaccine that covers the strain of type B meningitis uncommon in the U.S., will be available ftoor students.

Meningitis can spread from person to person, and left untreated could lead to brain damage, amputation or even death.

[Reuters]