2009.09.28
Tech student with meningitis expected to recover
A 19 year-old Virginia Tech student diagnosed with bacterial meningitis is expected to make a full recovery, a university official said today.
“About 75 students who may have had close contact with the student were proactively treated with antibiotics. No new cases have been found or are expected,” Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski wrote in an e-mail.
About 40,000 students, faculty and staff in Blacksburg were notified of the illness by e-mail Friday.
According to that e-mail, the student had been hospitalized and was listed Friday in critical condition.
State health officials worked with Tech’s health service to identify other students who may have been exposed.
Ten cases of meningitis had been reported in Virginia through August, according to a news release. Twenty-four cases were reported in 2008.
Bacterial meningitis, which is typically more severe than viral strains of the disease, nearly killed former Hokies basketball player Rayna DuBose in April 2002. She eventually returned to the university but lost parts of four limbs to the infection.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the tissues around the brain and can cause brain damage, hearing loss and learning disabilities.
Common symptoms include high fever, headache and stiff neck. Other symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, rash and confusion and sleepiness and develop over several hours or over one to two days. The disease is treated with antibiotics.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, 10 percent of those infected die and 20 percent suffer permanent complications.
The infection is typically spread through saliva or nasal secretions. High risk activities include kissing and sharing of toothbrushes, drinking glasses or eating utensils.
For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/yey3cbm.
-- Tonia Moxley
