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One Child Too Many
Preventing Bacterial Meningitis
By Kelly Burgess
Since the loss of their only child, one of the most difficult facts the Koenigs have had to face is the knowledge that there is a safe vaccine that may have protected her from the bacteria. "The general feeling is that this is a relatively rare illness, but if you look over the period of time since this vaccine has been available and add up how many children have died, you're talking 10,000 lives," says Koenig. "It's terrible when you think many of those deaths could have been prevented. Even one is too many."
While the Koenigs were unaware of the existence of a vaccine, the Kepferles, of Lexington Park, Md., had received information about it in their son's college acceptance packet. When they asked about getting Pat the vaccine at his pre-college physical, they were told it was not available in that office. When he left for college, Pat promised to get vaccinated as soon as possible. But, understandably, getting a shot is usually not high on a college freshman's priority list. Pat died of meningitis several months later.
The Koenigs have tried to find solace from their grief in efforts to raise funds for meningitis research and awareness. More research into detecting and preventing meningitis is urgently needed because of the limitations of the vaccine. While it is better than nothing, it's only about 85 percent effective. Also, there currently is no reliable method to test for the presence of meningitis, which lives in the back of the throat, even though it's estimated that up to 15 percent of the population carries the bacteria.
Al Koenig sees meningitis prevention as an issue that is becoming even more important as the world becomes more global, which is why he points out that it's possible the woman who sneezed on Emily was from another country. "The immune system is broken up into inherited and learned immunities," says Koenig. "Generall, as you get older, you're exposed to a lot of different things, and you develop immunities. Those with weakened or immature immune systems don't fight off bacteria that an older or healthier person may not even realize they've been exposed to. Also, when you're exposed to people from different cultures, you often don't have any inherent immunity."
