Meningitus Vaccine

My 20-year old daughter has ITP and attends UC Berkeley. It is recommended that you have a meningitis vaccine when living in a group setting. She was diagnosed with ITP at age 14 just two months after getting her first meningitis vaccine and is now in a quandry over whether or not to be vaccinated again. Does anyone have any thoughts/recommendations on this? Thanks in advance for your comments.

You could have her titer tested and see if she is still immune. If so, you wouldn't have to worry about it. My daughter has autoimmune issues and works in a hospital where vaccines are required. She gets her titers done to avoid any unnecessary vaccines.

Thank you for your reply. But I don't understand--what is "titer"? I'm new to this.

Titre (or titer in US) is the concentration of an antibody in the body. So they test to see how 'strong' the antibody is in her system. They actually take blood and dilute it and dilute it and see how dilute it can be and still have the antibody show. If it's deemed to be good enough no need to re-vaccinate.

For example after a hepatitis B vaccination they test the blood to see how well it's worked. To have worked you have to have a score over 100. When I had it mine came back with a score of 17 so I am said not to be immune from hepatitis B.

Her doctor should know what you are talking about if you ask for a titer for vaccines. Simple blood test. Ann is right, it just measures the amount of antibodies present to a certain disease.

If she is no longer immune, then you'd have to weigh the pros and cons of getting the vaccination (benefit vs. risk).

Thank you very much; we will check that out.