Subject: meningitis outbreak & on - site vaccinations
the enron health center has remained in contact with our occupational
medicine advisor and the houston public health dept . regarding the meningitis
outbreak and recommendations for vaccinations . at this time , the houston
public health department does not consider the present cases of meningitis
as an epidemic . ? they have provided us with the following guidelines based on
input from the centers for disease control ( cdc ) .
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the cdc has defined the highest risk groups as the following :
1 . children less than 2 years of age
2 . groups of individuals living in confined spaces , i . e . college dorms and
military recruits
3 . individuals that are immunocompromised
4 . individuals with a damaged spleen or no spleen
5 . travellers to sub saharan africa or the middle east
6 . close contact with infected individuals through sneezing , coughing , or
saliva exchange .
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the cdc has described an outbreak as 10 cases per 100 , 000 population during
a period of 3 months . ? they recommend vaccinating high risk individuals
living in ? high risk areas . ? however , mass vaccination for individuals not
living in those areas is not recommended at this time . ?
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in order to assist enron employees that are living in high risk areas
( conroe , new caney , kingwood ) we are attempting to obtain the meningitis
vaccine . if you are interested in the enron health center providing the
vaccine to self and family members ( dependants over the age of 2 years )
please contact the health center at x 36100 so that we may calculate the
amount of vaccine we will need to have available and to set up appointments .
we calculate the employee cost of the vaccine to be approximately $ 85 . 00 .
if anyone is concerned about a previous exposure from someone in the high
risk area , they should contact their primary care physician regarding
vaccination or the texas department of health . the texas department of
health ' s website for information regarding meningitis is
www . tdh . state . tx . us / .