Prevent Meningitis: Tips to Protect Your Teen

There's a lot you can do to help prevent meningitis in your teen. A meningitis vaccine can help prevent the majority of cases of meningitis. Your teen can also take steps to enhance his or her immune system and to prevent the spread of the disease.

Meningitis Prevention: Protect With a Vaccine

Meningococcal disease is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis in teens and young adults. The CDC recommends a meningococcal vaccine for:

• All children age 11-18.
• Anyone who has been exposed to meningitis during an outbreak
• Anyone traveling to or living where meningitis is common
• Military recruits
• People with certain immune system disorders or a damaged or missing spleen

Is your teen planning on going to a sleep-away camp? Be sure to get him or her vaccinated for meningococcal disease. Close contact with other kids at camp puts your younger teen at increased risk just as college dormitories do.

Meningitis Prevention: Avoid the Spread of Disease

You cannot get meningitis from casual contact, such as by breathing the air that an infected person has breathed. These bacteria do not live long outside the human body. But you can get it from close or prolonged contact with an infected person. The bacteria that cause bacterial meningitis live in the back of the nose and throat and are carried by 10% to 25% of the population.

Good personal hygiene can help prevent the spread of disease:

• Don't share food, glasses, water bottles, or eating utensils.
• Don't share tissues or towels.
• Don't share lip-gloss or lipstick.
• Wash hands often with soap and water
  

Remember: A person with bacterial meningitis can remain contagious for about 24 hours after starting antibiotics. If a person with meningitis has exposed your teen to the disease, ask the doctor whether it is necessary to take antibiotics. Doing this for a few days may help prevent your teen from getting the disease.

Meningitis Prevention: Enhance the Immune System

Keeping the immune system healthy helps prevent susceptibility to a wide range of diseases. It may also help prevent infection by the viruses and bacteria that cause meningitis. This is just one more reason your teen may benefit from:

• Eating a well- balanced diet, rich in vegetables and fruits
• Getting enough sleep
• Exercising regularly
• Avoiding cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol