As of noon Monday, Princeton University began a mass vaccination for type B meningitis in an effort to quell an outbreak on campus, the Associated Press reported.
According to Thomas Clark, a meningitis expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a large volume of students were waiting for their vaccination once they became available.
The vaccine for meningitis type B has not yet been approved for use in the U.S., but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Princeton to administer it. Thus far, seven students and one students visitor have been infected, but no cases have been fatal.
The vaccinations are voluntary and available to all undergraduate students, graduate students who live in on-campus dormitories and certain school employees with medical conditions.
The bulk of reported meningitis cases came in November, but the CDC advised the mass vaccination to back up safety precautions already taken by Princeton officials. Such actions already taken include making students aware of ways the disease can be spread, though human contact, mostly with saliva and blood.
The vaccine, Bexsero, has not been licensed in the U.S., but has been approved in Canada, Australia and Europe. Approved for use at Princeton, it will come in two doses with one this week and the next in February.
I just wanted to make sure I could get in and out as quickly as possible," Kate Dreyfuss, a 21-year-old senior told NBC News. "It felt just like a flu shot, not very painful at all."
Clark said the only reactions to the vaccinations so far have been very minor, like soreness following the shot. He included that Princeton was well prepared for the high volume of students looking to receive the shot.
"They can move hundreds of kids through in a day," he said.
UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) has four reported cases of meningitis, including one student who needed both of his feet amputated. While the vaccine is now available at Princeton, it is not automatically coming to UCSB. Clark did not say what would get the FDA to approve Bexsero's use on UCSB's campus.
"That's the point that has everyone on edge," he told NBC News. "There's a lot going on behind the scenes."