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Cuomo Approves Bill Mandating Meningitis Vaccines For 7th, 12th Graders

ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week signed a bill into law requiring meningitis vaccines for students in grades seven and 12.

The new law requires students in the seventh grade and high school seniors to be vaccinated against meningitis beginning next year.

As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported, more than 20 states already require the shot as part of standard immunizations that also vaccines against mumps, measles, polio and other deadly diseases.

The push for the bill stemmed from the case of Lindsay Jerdo, who was an 18-year-old with a cat named Socks and a new job at a ski resort when she came down with a headache a few days before Christmas 2001. She had meningitis, and 36 hours later, she was dead.

Since then, her mother, Deb Jerdo, has worked to educate people about the disease and push state leaders to add meningitis vaccines to the list of immunizations required for schoolchildren.

``Lindsay died from a vaccine-preventable disease,'' the Saranac Lake woman said. ``By the time we got her to the hospital, the disease had overtaken her. When the doctor diagnosed her, it was really already too late.''

More than 20 states already require the shot as part of standard immunizations that also vaccines against mumps, measles, polio and other deadly diseases.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 1,000 people get meningitis annually and up to 15 percent die. Survivors can suffer hearing loss and limb amputation. The infection moves swiftly, with flu-like symptoms and severe headache quickly turning to seizures, skin rashes and death. People with weakened immune systems and those who live in college dorms, boarding schools and other communal living facilities are at higher risk.

``You lose your life, you lose limbs, it's just such a horrific disease, but we can prevent it,'' said the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Forestburgh, a registered nurse.

The mandate ``will save lives from this silent killer,'' said Kelsey Louie, chief executive at the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a group created to fight AIDS that had lobbied for the bill.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others who question the safety of vaccines opposed the bill but got little traction against Jerdo and other parents and loved ones of victims, who lobbied for its passage in the Legislature.

``It'll be 14 years on Dec. 24,'' said Jerdo, now a grandmother. ``She was a happy, healthy girl one day and gone in 36 hours.''

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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