http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/06/health/06VACC.html

June 6, 2001

Ohio Acts to Prevent Spread of Meningitis

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ealth officials have ordered a precautionary vaccination program for 5,800 students and faculty and staff members at six Ohio schools after two high school students in Alliance died of bacterial meningitis.

"Our job is to err on the side of conservatism," Dr. J. Nick Baird, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said at a news conference announcing that all high schools in the Alliance area, about 30 miles southeast of Akron, would receive the immunization program.

Two Beloit West Branch High School students, Jonathan Stauffer, 15, and Kelly Coblentz, 16, died of bacterial meningitis infections late last month.

The two teen-agers were friends and might have shared a water bottle at a school picnic, school officials said.

There are about 3,000 cases of bacterial meningitis reported annually in the nation, with a fatality rate of 10 percent to 15 percent, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The $300,000 emergency meningitis vaccination program is the first in state history, said health officials in Ohio, which reports about 150 cases of the disease each year.

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.