Proactive

Bravo to the Lete family. Jason is blessed to have proactive parents who can get him this life-saving vaccine. It is just sad that they had to go out of the U.S. to get it, even sadder that most parents don’t have the means to do this.

I lost my only child, Ryan, to group C meningococcal disease. When Ryan died, we had no access to or knowledge of the vaccine that was on the U.S. market. I watched my son go from perfect health to blood coming from every orifice of his body and death in less than 14 hours. That was 15 years ago.

With the outbreaks of group B meningococcal disease on two college campuses leaving debilitation of several college students, the CDC had to bring in an approved vaccine from another country not yet approved in this country to stop it.

While the CDC does an excellent job in outbreak and disease prevention, we must encourage them to go even further to prevent what is preventable and recommend life-saving vaccines when available.

As a mother who buried her only child needlessly and the director of a national organization that has seen and continues to see debilitation and death by this preventable disease, I am sickened that we consider a vaccine that could stop such a deadly disease not cost effective.

Any disease outbreak is a plane ride away or can arrive via a simple crossing of a border.

It is time we get our priorities in order and put all public health at the top of that list. For more information, contact meningitis-angels.org.