Panel Recommends New Meningitis Vaccine

A government panel has recommended that all college freshmen who live in dorms receive a new meningitis vaccine that lasts years longer than the old one and prevents people from being carriers of the bacteria. The recommendation was an about-face from previous policy and was prompted largely by a new vaccine, Menactra, made by sanofi-pasteur. The new vaccine is effective for more than eight years, while the old one lasted just three to five years. The old vaccine also didn't prevent people from being carriers.

Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_he_me/meningitis_vaccine)