Acadia student died from B strain of meningococcal meningitis

HALIFAX – An Acadia student who died from meningitis had contracted the B strain of the disease, test results show.

READ MORE: Acadia students celebrate life of student who passed away from meningitis

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Wellness said it received the results from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg late Friday.

Sarah Hastings died last Sunday after being found unresponsive in her dorm room.

The B strain of the disease is the most common strain of meningitis. A vaccine was approved by Health Canada for the B strain of meningococcal disease in 2013 but no provinces or territories publicly fund it.

MORE: What vaccinations do provinces and territories offer? (external link)

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Health officials in Nova Scotia have said they are looking into it.

Nova Scotia Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Strang has said several factors need to be taken into consideration before the province offers the vaccine.

“Is the disease important enough that we include those in our publicly funded program? And if so, how do we then go about making the case to get funding to do that?” he said.

“We’re actively in the process of looking at that and looking at how we can move that forward.”

READ MORE: Nova Scotia to vaccinate against meningitis strain that killed Sackville teen

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization makes recommendations about the use of vaccines in Canada, however it appears to be on the fence about whether the vaccine should be publicly offered across the country.

MORE: Report from National Advisory Committee on Immunization on the B-strain vaccine (external link)

“Currently it is not recommended to include the multi-component meningococcal serogroup B vaccine in routine immunization programs for Canadian infants, children, adolescents and adults,” it said in statement.

It cites the lack of evidence, uncertainly over how long protection will last and possible adverse effects of the vaccine.