College Vaccination Plan Passed by Mississippi Senate

The Mississippi Senate has passed legislation requiring university and junior college students this fall to be vaccinated against meningitis. The bill, which would make vaccinations optional for hepatitis A and B, now goes to the House, where a similar proposal was rejected on Tuesday. Sen. Terry Burton (R-Newton) said there has been no problem on higher education campuses in the state but other states have had reports of the bacterial infections. "We probably won't have a problem but there is the potential," said Senate Public Health Committee Chair Robert "Bunky" Huggins (R-Greenwood). Students could, under certain conditions, refuse the vaccinations. Mississippi's universities require two measles, mumps and rubella vaccines during a student's lifetime, plus TB and hepatitis B vaccines. State health officials, who said they follow current CDC guidelines, have said that the immunizations would be costly and unnecessary.

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