OHIO Meningitis measure approved

Colleges wouldn't have to pay for the vaccinations.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Colleges in Ohio would be forced to ban students from living in on-campus housing unless they submit a statement acknowledging they've received information on meningitis, under a bill Gov. Bob Taft signed into law Tuesday.
Under the new law, sponsored by state Rep. John P. Hagan, R-Stark County, the information colleges would have to provide students includes the risks associated with meningitis.
Colleges, universities and proprietary schools would also have to distribute information on the availability and effectiveness of vaccines under the new law, passed by the GOP-led Legislature earlier this year.
The statement would also include a space for students to say whether they've been vaccinated or not been vaccinated but will consider doing so within a year, under the measure.
Colleges wouldn't have to pay for the vaccinations.
Notification
Under the measure, the Ohio Department of Health would also have to notify each public school system, charter school with students in the ninth grade and colleges of the meningitis information on the agency's Web site.
One change made in the Senate would include hepatitis B as a disease schools would also have to notify students of. Another change would make the proposal effective in the 2005-06 school year.
In the spring of 2001, two Alliance-area high school students died after contracting meningococcemia, the blood infection caused by a strain of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.
A third student, from another Alliance-area high school, was hospitalized but survived.
The new law goes into effect in 90 days.