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You might want to add "Get Immunized" on the list of things you need to do before start your first year of college.

According to Peter Wenger from the New Jersey Medical School, Children who are preparing for their freshman year in a dormitory are at increased risk for bacterial meningitis.

Each year this disease can suddenly affect up to 2,600 otherwise healthy people - with teenagers and young adults the high-risk category. Bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord and can lead to death or permanent injury. Although meningitis can be successfully treated with antibiotics, it is fatal in 10 to 14 percent of cases. In addition, nearly 20 percent of survivors end up with brain damage, amputation or kidney failure. 

Meningitis is not as contagious as the flu or the common cold, but it does spread through the exchange of respiratory or throat secretions (e.g., coughing or kissing). Researchers say crowded living conditions and the sharing of utensils, drinking glasses and cigarettes are contributing factors. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention recommends that all first-year college students receive the meningitis vaccine, which is safe, highly effective and provides three to five years of protection. Many states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, require that all incoming students living on college campuses either have a vaccination or sign a waiver stating they choose not to be vaccinated for this disease.

Wenger said college bound students should be vaccinated against Hepatitis A,, get an annual immunization against influenza and any vaccines not offered when the child was an infant, such as varicella against chicken pox, if the child had not already acquired wild-type chicken pox.

In addition, the CDC has suggested that young adults between the ages of 19 and 24 should get the meningococcal conjugate vaccine, the tdap vaccine which protects against the whooping cough, the HPV vaccine, which protects against the viruses that cause most cervical cancers, anal cancer, and genital warts and the seasonal flu vaccine.