is a national non-profit that was founded in 1998 by Kathryn Blain who lost her 19-year-old son, Michael Longo, to IMD in 1995. He never woke up from a coma in the ICU so she could say goodbye, and died three days after symptoms first appeared and the red and purple petechial rash, a marker of severe disease, developed on his skin. Kathryn and her husband walked away from the hospital in shock, not knowing who to turn to for answers about meningitis and why it happens. She connected with other parents who had lost children to IMD and decided to launch the Foundation to advocate for change, improving vaccination uptake and survival rates, and support for those whose lives have been impacted by IMD.
There are six main strains of the bacteria that cause disease: A, B, C, W, X and Y. The meningococcal conjugate vaccine, for strains A, C, W and Y, for children and adults was introduced in Canada in 2005, with each province and territory running its own publicly-funded vaccination program. Vaccines for meningococcus are typically given to infants and then to children at age 12.
The Foundation wants to make people aware that the vaccination at age 12 is no longer as effective by the time young people enter college; they need a booster. In addition, a vaccine for MenB was approved in Canada in 2013, with a second one approved in 2018, but they have not been introduced into routine vaccine programs in Canada. They’re available for purchase and for outbreak control. Adding to the risk, there is no national vaccine registry and immigrants may not have been vaccinated for any strains because of different vaccination protocols in their place of origin.