Student Health Services

Bush Campus Center, Room 150 · (570) 320-5234

Meningitis Information

Student Vaccination Act

On June 28, 2002, former Pennsylvania Governor Schweiker signed the College and University Student Vaccination Act. This Act states that all students, in order to live in college-owned housing, must either have had a meningitis vaccine or sign a document stating that they have been given information about meningitis and the vaccine and have not received the vaccine due to religious or other reasons. (If the student is under the age of 18 a parent must sign the document.)

College Responsibility

The Act states that colleges are only responsible for dissemination of information on meningitis and the vaccine and documentation of immunization or declination of immunization. Colleges are not required to pay for or provide the meningitis vaccine. For more information on this Act, visit the Pennsylvania General Assembly Web site.

For further information on meningitis and the meningitis vaccine, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American College Health Association.

Vaccination

Vaccination against meningitis is relatively inexpensive and is sometimes available at no cost to the public through public health clinics. Check your health insurance policy; it may cover the cost of pre-college immunizations.

Penn College’s Meningitis Vaccination Clinic

Registration – Meningitis vaccination clinics are held at the beginning of the semester. Watch this Web site for announcements about future clinics. Appointments are required.

Information on meningitis and the meningitis vaccine used in this site was obtained from pamphlets distributed by the American College Health Association and Adventis Pasteur Pharmaceutical Company.