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SDSU meningitis vaccines given to students may be ineffective

San Diego State University students who were recently vaccinated for meningitis may need to receive the vaccine again, the school and Walgreens warned on Friday.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - San Diego State University students who were recently vaccinated for meningitis may need to receive the vaccine again, the school and Walgreens warned on Friday.

Walgreens, according to the Daily Aztec, administered improperly stored vaccines to around 350 students at a pair of vaccine clinics earlier this month. The company confirmed to City News Service it is making attempts to track down students who may have been affected.

"We recently became aware that the vaccine temperature at the time of administration was not optimal," a Walgreens spokesman said. "While we believe there is no associated safety risk, in order to ensure that recipients received full efficacy of the vaccine, we are in the process of contacting the students to offer re-vaccinations."

SDSU offered the two vaccine clinics on Oct. 5 and 8 after county health officials declared an outbreak of the bacterial illness. Two undergraduate students were hospitalized in September for meningococcal symptoms. Walgreens and Kaiser Permanente helped the university's Student Health Services administer the vaccines due to a county supply shortage.

"Students who received a (meningococcal) vaccination through the various on-campus clinics by the County of San Diego and Kaiser Permanente have not been affected and do not need to be re-vaccinated," according to SDSU. "SDSU has been working in collaboration with Walgreens and the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency to ensure that all SDSU students who were vaccinated by Walgreens on Oct. 5 and Oct. 8 are re-vaccinated."

Residents and students looking for more information from Walgreens can call (800) WALGREENS, or 925-4733. Residents can also call the San Diego County Public Health Services' Epidemiology unit for more information about meningitis at (619) 682-8499.

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