Story highlights Seven cases of meningitis have been reported on the New Jersey campus

University officials to discuss offering vaccine

Feds OK use of vaccine not approved in the United States

Officials at Princeton University were to meet over the weekend to decide whether to offer students a vaccine against meningitis after seven cases of the potentially fatal disease occurred on campus.

"We will be discussing it with our trustees this weekend," school spokesman Martin Mbugua said Friday.

The world's sole meningococcal vaccine that targets meningitis group B is called Bexsero and is manufactured by Novartis. Though it is approved in Europe and Australia, it has not been approved for use in the United States.

"We have filed an Investigational New Drug application for our MenB vaccine in the U.S., but have not yet come to an agreement on a pathway to licensure for this vaccine with regulatory authorities," Novartis spokeswoman Elizabeth Power told CNN Saturday in an e-mail.

Still, company officials have been coordinating with officials at Princeton, the Centers for Disease Control and the state Department of Public Health about getting a vaccine to the school, she said.

"We took the step to allow the option to vaccinate the students, but the decision to do so has not been made yet," CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds told CNN on Friday.

Group B meningitis is a strain of the bacterial form of the disease that is rare in the United States. Symptoms can include stiff neck, headache, fever, vomiting, rashes, sensitivity to light and confusion. Untreated, the disease can lead to complications such as hearing impairment, brain damage, limb amputations and death. It is treated with antibiotics.

"Usually, when you see this kind of meningitis on the campus, it's meningitis C," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, in a telephone interview with CNN. "This is very, very unusual."

Schaffner added that, in the United States, Group B meningitis typically strikes infants, and only rarely adolescents and young adults.

Though the mechanism needed for health officials to administer an unapproved vaccine in the United States is "very elaborate," it would be justified in this case, he said. "If I were around the table with the board of trustees, I would be gently encouraging them to do this."

Princeton's first reported case developed in a student who had returned to the campus after spring recess in March, according to the state health department. Two months later, after six students and one visitor had contracted the disease, an outbreak was declared. All have recovered except for the last case, a male student who remains hospitalized after being diagnosed on November 8.

No common link has been identified among the cases, New Jersey health officials said.

Meningitis can spread via the exchange of saliva and other respiratory secretions through kissing, coughing, sharing drinks and living in close quarters, such as in dormitories, according to the health department.

The bacteria can reside for months in the back of the throat before causing symptoms, Schaffner said.

But the disease is not wholly understood. Cases of meningococcal disease in general -- including Group B -- have dropped in recent years to the lowest levels since the 1930s. "Nobody knows why," he said. And cases sometimes occur more frequently in Oregon. "We've never understood that either."

The New Jersey outbreak is also puzzling. "Why this is occurring is not clear, but the trick everybody is working on is how to stop it, how to prevent further cases," he said.

If the board decides to offer the vaccine, as many as 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the school could be offered the vaccine.