Bill filed to require bacterial meningitis vaccine in Tx

[No2NWO]

Bill filed to require bacterial meningitis vaccine

State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, has filed a bill that would require all college freshmen to be vaccinated for bacterial meningitis.

An existing state law that took effect in January 2010 requires only students in on-campus housing to receive the meningococcal vaccine for the aggressive illness, which is a bacterial infection and inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

The current law, also known as the Jamie Schanbaum Act, is named after a University of Austin sophomore who lost her fingers to flesh-eating bacteria and also had her legs amputated below her knees.

Reynolds filed the bill on the heels of the death of Nicolis "Nico" Williams, a Texas A&M junior from Sugar Land, who died Feb. 11 from bacterial meningitis.

Williams did not live on campus and was not vaccinated against the disease, Reynolds said.

"When a student dies from the area I represent, it really hits home that we need to change the law to include that all college students need to be vaccinated," said Reynolds, who co-authored House Bill 1557 with state Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7445808.html

[America2]

They are really pushing this much, much more than they did in 2009.