‘A huge first step’

Meningitis vaccine policy welcome news for grieving family

As the woeful day nears, the sadness for the Matthews clan — parents Norrie and Kari, daughter Vea — deepens.

Two years ago, on June 1, 2021, their beloved boy, a healthy, vibrant, athletic teenager just back from his first year at Acadia University, died from meningitis, an infection of the brain and spinal cord.

Kai Matthew’s passing was as woefully unnecessary as it was achingly unexpected.

Like most Nova Scotian babies, Norrie and Kari’s son received the Quadrivalent vaccine which protects against a wide variety of meningitis strains.

What the couple did not know was that parents had to specifically ask for their child to be vaccinated for meningitis B — not included in the public vaccination plans of a single Canadian province — a strain which usually strikes during the teen years and is fatal in one in 10 cases.

“The days leading up to it have been so very difficult,” Norrie said of the anniversary.

The call they received on May 24, momentarily, helped them to forget the pain.

WELCOME NEWS

Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, wanted to personally give the couple the news.

Nova Scotia’s public immunization program, like everywhere else in Canada, covers people considered to be at high risk for meningitis B — a list that includes those who have received organ transplants, and suffer from blood disorders, as well as close contacts of anyone who has contracted the disease.

Everyone else has to call a primary health provider for a vaccine that, unless a private insurer is involved, costs $300 for the necessary two doses.

But on May 24 Strang told the Matthews family that starting the last week of May, that policy changes. Nova Scotia will now offer the meningitis B vaccine free for Nova Scotians under 25 who are entering a post-secondary educational institution and will be living in a group setting such as a residence for the first time as well as new military recruits living in similar arrangements, like a military barrack.

“Adding these specific groups to our existing highrisk policy is an important step in supporting such individuals to reduce their risk,” Strang said in a news release.

REALLY GOOD DAY

The Matthews family couldn’t agree more.

“This is a really, really good day,” Norrie told me a few hours after his conversation with Strang.

When I interviewed him and Kari two years ago, after Kai’s death, they were searching, in the midst of their pain, for a way to honour their son, to ensure that even in death, the life of this young man who was “everyone’s best friend” had an impact.

That desire still burns brightly. The couple founded the B for Kai organization, to raise awareness about the B strain and to increase vaccination rates.

They have pushed Nova Scotia universities to revise their health plans to include meningitis B coverage. At Kai’s alma mater, Acadia University, the money they have raised has helped to cover the cost of the vaccines.

ENCOURAGING SIGNS

Lately, there have been encouraging signs that things are changing in bigger ways.

In April, the Prince Edward Island government announced the two doses of the meningitis B vaccine will now be available free of cost to students attending a postsecondary school and living in residence in P.E.I. or even out-of-province.

“We were wondering if Nova Scotia would follow,” Norrie said. “We just didn’t think that it would happen so soon. We have a real sense of pride that some of the work we are doing is paying off.”

There is more to do, in his view. The new arrangement does nothing for those most statistically likely to be struck by meningitis B: babies.

He also points out that most university students only live in residence in their first year.

Afterwards, they usually move into off-campus apartments but continue to play on sports teams, to party together, and share things, all of which makes them a high-risk group for contracting meningitis B, which is five times more likely to strike postsecondary students than any other group.

“This is a huge first step,” Norrie said, “but a broader lens has to be used than just this age group in the future.”

For now, though, his hope is that more provinces will follow Nova Scotia’s lead, and that someday, Canada will be like the United Kingdom, Australia, and other countries where meningitis B is part of the standard schedule of vaccines, thereby aligning us with the World Health Organization’s goal of eradicating bacterial meningitis by 2030.

On May 24, with the sad anniversary just days away, Norrie told me that if anything, the loss of his son is harder to bear now than it was during the first year.

“It doesn’t get easier,” he said, quoting something a friend told him back in 2021. “It just gets different.”

We can only hope that helping create the kind of change that helps others does something to lessen their pain.