Center for Desease Control (CDC) list of Vaccinations for College Students: State by State

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Meningitis!

Frequently fatal.

Thrives in college-living atmosphere, with lots of people in close proximity to each other, and sharing facilities.

Flu-like symptoms, fast moving. Inflammation of the meninges caused by viral or bacterial infection and marked by intense headache and fever, sensitivity to light, perhaps muscular rigidity. Can cause convulsions, delirium and death.

Ask your physician about the vaccine. Today.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis was first known as "consumption" and later called The White Plague. T.B. and other highly contagious diseases such as Typhus were among the reasons for inspecting newly arrived immigrants at Ellis Island between 1894 and 1924.

Passengers with their own cabins, who had places to go when they arrived were not deemed to be as much of a threat as the millions of poor who were going to be living together in crowded tenements in the inner cities, altho the disease did not discriminate between groups of people.

At this time, TB killed about 25 percent of our population annually. When it was identified as a contagious disease, victims were placed in sanitariums to help them as well as to isolate them from the rest of the population. Canada had large numbers of Tuberculosis patients, and lagged behind the United States in providing treatment for victims of the disease.

Robert Louis Stephenson died of T.B., as did Lucy Montgomery, author of the beloved "Anne of Green Gables" series, as did the famous western character, Doc Holiday. If you saw the film "3:10 to Yuma", Christian Bales's son in the movie had T.B.

Tuberculosis became less of a threat after the discovery/invention of antibiotics. Now, however, it has become resistant to some of the drugs previously used to treat it, and the spread of auto-immune diseases, particularly AIDS, is aiding in the return of this dreaded disease. TB is closely monitored by the CDC. California leads the nation in nimber of TB cases.

It takes two forms: Latent (Inactive), and Active.

Inactive, which many people have without knowing it. In this stage, the bacteria sit in little pockets in your lungs waiting for their chance to break out and cause full-blown T.B. This form is frighteningly common, but shows up in X-Rays and T.B. skin tests. On an X-Ray it looks like tiny holes in you lungs. Treatment for this form requires prolonged treatment (several months) with an antibiotic.

It is not contagious, and has no symptoms in the Latent form.

ACTIVE TB: You are sick, and you are contagious. Unknown and/or untreated, a disease, a weakened immune system, or even a weaker immune system as you age, can cause the bacteria to break out and cause active Tuberculosis.

Left untreated, TB is a debilitating, eventually fatal, disease.

Be aware, and avoid people displaying symptoms, like caughing. Get a chest X-Ray.

Signs and Symptoms of Tuberculosis

Women: Cervical Cancer