Infant Meningococcal Disease Vaccine and Protect Infants Now Campaign

What do you know about infant meningococcal disease? If you are like most parents, outside of those in the medical profession, you only learn about certain medical conditions when one of those conditions strikes closely to home or you learn about it from a friend. The family at a Mama’s Corner of the World would like to share some information about this preventable disease, the Protect Infants Now initiative and Meningitis Angels.

While infant meningococcal disease and meningitis have not affected anyone in our family directly—the illness is among the leading causes of preventable deaths in infants in the United States. Sadly, infant meningitis is fatal in 1 of 16 infants contracting the illness.

Unfortunately, although the illness is preventable, many babies are not vaccinated against infant meningococcal disease because the vaccine has not been officially recommended by the Center for Disease Control as part of a baby’s routine vaccination schedule. Many parents are simply unaware of either the illness or the vaccine. Because of the risk of this devastating disease to our most vulnerable children, we have joined forces with Meningitis Angels and their Protect Infants Now campaign to help get the word out about preventing this infection.

The CDC is considering making the infant meningococcal disease vaccine a recommended part of an infant's vaccination routine—and is weighing public opinion on the issue as part of the agency’s review process. If you are interested in learning more about this illness, visit the CDC’s infant meningococcal disease fact sheets and take a few moments to view the following video from Meningitis Angels.



Would you like to add your support to the Protect Infants Now (PIN) campaign? You may sign the PIN petition online to voice your opinion on this matter. The petition will be offered to the CDC to encourage them to include the infant meningococcal disease vaccine in an infant’s suggested immunizations.


Disclosure: I am writing in support of this campaign on behalf of Meningitis Angels and Mom Central. Funding for this campaign was made possible, in part, by Novartis Vaccines. A small donation was made to a charity of my choice by MomCentral on my behalf as a thank you for participating. While we do not support all vaccines in every situation—the staff at A Mama’s Corner of the World prefers to let each individual make personal, informed immunization decisions and offer this information as we felt that it may benefit a number of our readers. As always, our opinions are our own and are in no way influenced by brands or organizations considered.