Student contracts meningitis
By HELENA PAYNE
News Editor
A local hospital is treating an off-campus Notre Dame student for meningitis, according to University Health Services.
The student became ill Sunday night with a fever and a headache after she returned from a weekend trip. Her housemates took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with meningitis, an inflammation of the brain or spinal cord membranes that is contracted through oral and nasal secretions.
Since the student has not been on campus since Wednesday, Health Services workers are confident that few students are at risk of having meningitis, said assistant director Pat Brubaker. They estimate a total of six people, including her five housemates, have had contact with her since her contraction of a bacterial form of the disease.
"We assume because the symptoms began three days [after she went out of town], she might have caught it from somewhere else," Brubaker said.
Brubaker said it was likely that the student had contracted one of the most common types of bacterial meningitis, Neisseria meningitis, which has no vaccine.
Doctors have treated the student with antibiotics, according to Brubaker.
Health Services alerted the Notre Dame campus in an e-mail Monday. Brubaker said about 50 students have called the office with concerns about whether they could get the disease if they knew one of the six people who had immediate contact with the student.
"This is not one of those germs that can be passed from a secondary contact," Brubaker said, adding that those who had contact with her received a different type of antibiotic than the student.
Brubaker encouraged all students to get immunized against the strains of meningitis that do have vaccines, pointing out that incidents of meningitis are highest among babies and college freshmen.
"It's best to catch it early," she said.
The last reported local college case of meningitis occurred two years ago when Jenny Nemeth, a Holy Cross student, died of bacterial meningitis.
Brubaker said the current case has caused less panic on campus because fewer students were exposed to the student than two years ago and the current student was quickly treated.
All News Stories for Wednesday, March 5, 2003
