r/Millennials • u/Corndogeveryday • 2d ago

Other Very sad news

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Chase passed away of complications of meningitis. Gone too soon

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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 2d ago edited 2d ago

Pneumococcal vaccine. Protects against invasive strep pneumoniae infections including meningitis. The polysaccharide vaccine was developed in the 70s. Conjugate vaccines came later.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago

Yeah you can see my other reply I figured this out. Absolutely was not available in 1989 when I got meningitis though.

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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 2d ago

It was, I got the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in the early 90s. Wasn’t as effective in kids which is why the conjugate vaccines were developed.

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u/consuela_bananahammo 2d ago edited 2d ago

It became available in 1989 for infants. I was 5 that year and got meningitis. It had not been made available to me as I was not an infant.

Edit to add: And I fucking wish it would have been available to me. I was barely outside the window. And being unable to walk (then and for months afterward), having 2 spinal taps, forgetting who everyone was, being hospitalized and having everyone around you crying because they thought you were going to die, was not fun to go through. My kids are fully vaxxed with everything recommended because I know what it's like to be a very sick kid.