New rule mandating meningitis vaccine for Wisconsin students to take effect, after yearlong suspension
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A new rule requiring students in middle and high school to get vaccinated against meningitis will go into effect next school year, after a year-long suspension of the rule expired this spring, according to state health officials.
The new requirement for students to get the vaccine against meningitis was one of several changes to the state's vaccination requirements for children in child care and K-12 schools made by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration early last year.
But that and other changes were blocked in March of last year when the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules voted to temporarily suspend parts of the new rule, citing concerns that the changes were excessive, unnecessary and burdensome to parents.
That suspension expired in April, when the legislative session ended without the enactment of a bill that would have repealed those parts of the rule, according to a press release issued Monday by the state Department of Health Services.
On top of existing vaccine requirements for school-age children, the new rule mandates the vaccine against meningitis, a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord, for students entering seventh grade and a booster dose for eligible students entering 12th grade, according to DHS. It also requires parents to show proof from a doctor or other health care provider that their child was infected with chickenpox before obtaining a waiver from the state's chickenpox vaccine requirement.
Previously, Wisconsin recommended but did not require school-age children to get a vaccine for meningitis protection, and parents only had to give their word their child had had chickenpox.
The new requirements for school-age children begin this fall with the new school year, and for those in child care, the relevant changes are now in effect, according to DHS.
Vaccine changes bring state closer to CDC recommendations
The updates bring the state's requirements more in line with recommendations made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the U.S.
The changes come at a time when the percentage of kids who are up-to-date on their required vaccines has dropped, data show, in many cases because families put off routine vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic or because of increased vaccine skepticism.
Wisconsin has among the lowest vaccination rates in the country when looking at kindergartners vaccinated against such diseases as chickenpox, measles, polio and whooping cough, according to data from the CDC.
Nationally, exemptions from vaccines required for school children reached the highest level ever reported in the 2022-23 school year, according to the CDC. An estimated 3% of kindergartners nationwide — and an estimated 7.2% of kindergartners in Wisconsin — were exempt from having to receive a required vaccine, according to a CDC report.
In testimony before state lawmakers last year, Ryan Westergaard, the state's chief medical officer, said the new vaccine requirements are based on keeping as many children alive and healthy as possible. He also recounted his personal experiences, including a college classmate who died of meningitis just hours after feeling ill and another who was hospitalized for a month and had a limb amputated because of the disease.
Meningitis is a disease that causes swelling of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. It can be caused by viral or bacterial infection and, rarely, a fungal infection. Viral meningitis is more common and rarely life-threatening, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. But bacterial meningitis, though less common, can cause life-threatening complications. Vaccination can prevent several types of bacterial meningitis.
The Meningococcal vaccine is not new: It's been recommended by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices since 2005, and its booster has been recommended since 2010, state health officials said.
Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New rule on meningitis vaccine for Wisconsin students to take effect
