Students at Risk of ‘Killer Disease’

Jeffrey Paga’s college pals had big plans for the evening, and those plans didn’t include hanging around the dorm room with their heads stuck in a book.

But Paga, who had felt fine all day, suddenly wasn’t in the mood to join them. He felt the flu coming on and figured he’d better stay in, take some over-the-counter medicine and hit the sack early.

By the next morning, however, he was dead, the victim of meningococcal disease, a rare but growing threat that has doubled among 15-to-24-year-olds in the last decade.

Adam Busuttil was one of the luckier ones. Like Paga, a student at Michigan State University, Busuttil fell ill with flu-like symptoms that rapidly grew so severe he was admitted to the hospital.

“I remember seeing a respirator, and that was the last thing I remembered for about a week,” he says in tonight’s “Nova” special report, “Killer Disease on Campus” (KCET-TV, 8 p.m.).

Busuttil eventually recovered, but as the camera pans over him, you can see he didn’t come through the experience unscathed: The tips of his fingers had to be removed after being damaged by the rampaging infection.

Often incorrectly referred to as meningitis, meningococcal disease takes several forms, of which meningitis, though serious, has a death rate of only 5%, compared with 40% for meningococcal septicemia.

The young--with immature immune systems that can be further compromised by college-age rites such as close-quarters living, late hours and drinking--are most susceptible.

A vaccine is available, but tonight’s program says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ruled that the relatively small number of cases (3,000 per year in the U.S.) do not warrant a mandatory inoculation program, saying it wouldn’t “be cost effective.”

Perhaps it’s worth the money to you.