With an outbreak of bacteria meningitis announced just last week at Princeton University, it’s timely that the VCH Travel Clinic is offering meningitis vaccinations at a reduced cost.
The Travel Clinic is offering the meningococcal vaccination for $90, rather than the regular $130 price, for the entire month of June. The vaccination is especially important for youth aged 12 to 24, since they are at a higher risk of infection.
Photo: A VCH Travel Clinic Nurse prepares to vaccinate a client.
This vaccine is also recommended for:
- anyone traveling countries in Africa, south of the Saharan Desert
- anyone traveling to Saudi Arabia
- people with underlying health conditions.
Help protect yourself and your family. And don’t forget to remind your clients. Call the Travel Clinic today at 604 736-9244 to get vaccinated.
How is meningitis spread?
You can catch bacterial meningitis from sharing food, a drink, eating utensils, water bottles, mouth guards or cigarettes. The infection is also spread through kissing, coughing or sneezing. Living in close quarters, such as college, university and boarding school students living in dorms, puts people at a higher risk of infection.
Is meningitis serious?
About half the people who get meningitis, die from it. Those who survive can suffer from brain damage, limb amputation and/or hearing loss.
What’s covered in BC
In BC, children receive the Men-C meningococcal vaccine shot to prevent bacterial meningitis as part of their regular shots at ages 2 months and 12 months as well as a booster in grade 6.
If you get the vaccine after grade 6, it is not covered by BC health care.
Protection lasts for three to five years.
What does the vaccine protect against?
There are many different strains of this bacterium but only four are preventable by vaccine; A,C,Y,W-135. In Canada meningococcal disease is most often caused by B,C or Y strains. There is no vaccine against the B strain yet. Children, up to age 12, in Canada routinely get vaccinated against the type C strain of the meningococcal bacterium.
This vaccine covers strains A, C, Y, W-135.
VCH and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommend that people between the ages of 12 and 24 get vaccinated against all four strains. The most common side effects to this vaccine are redness and tenderness at the injection site.
Learn more about meningitis
Read the Meningitis page on this website to learn more about the causes, symptoms and treatment.
Travel Clinic services
The Travel Clinic is located in Vancouver at Ash and West Broadway. It’s staffed by doctors and nurses specializing in travel medicine who provide the public with pre-travel needs such as counselling, vaccines and prescriptions. The clinic also sells supplies such as water purifiers and mosquito nets and repellents.