The University of Massachusetts has scheduled a mass meningitis vaccination program at its Amherst campus after federal health officials determined that two recent cases of the disease at the school should be considered an outbreak.
UMass is recommending that all undergraduates as well as graduate students living in undergraduate housing get vaccinated at one of four clinics planned for the next week. More than 1,400 students have already been vaccinated.
One student was diagnosed with a variant of the disease on Oct. 24, and a second was diagnosed earlier this month. Both are recovering.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that because the two cases originated from a single strain of genetically identical organisms it should be considered an outbreak.
The campus continues to operate as normal.
