http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/06/08/meningitis.outbreak.03/index.html
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Ohio starts vaccinating students
June 8, 2001 Posted: 2:23 p.m. EDT (1823 GMT)
ALLIANCE,
Ohio (CNN) -- Thousands of students began getting vaccinations Friday
against a bacterial outbreak that has left two teen-agers dead and a third
hospitalized from meningitis-related illnesses. The state health department plans to inoculate 5,800 students and teachers
at six high schools around Alliance. School superintendent Lou Ramunno told
CNN the six schools were chosen because interactions among the children there
were most frequent. By the time the vaccination program closed Friday, Ohio Health Commission
spokeswoman Beth Gianforcaro said at least 4,200 people had received
inoculations. She said anyone who missed Friday's immunizations could go to
their local health deparment to get vaccinated. Health officials said the bacteria can only be transmitted by close
contact, such as kissing or sharing utensils, not by casual contact. "If you ride the same school bus, drink from the same public water
fountain, go to the same restaurant, you're at no risk -- no increased risk
-- for meningococcal disease," said Mahoning County Health Commissioner
Matt Stefanak.
Despite such reassurances, many students said they were being shunned by people
outside their community -- excluded from parties and sporting events out of
fear of the bacteria. Last weekend, some 37,000 people lined up at two
hospitals to get preventive antibiotic doses. "The community is pretty frightened and they're confused,"
Ramunno said. "They're trying to learn as much as they can about the
bacteria, how it's transmitted, the history of it, so they can protect their
own children. I think as they understand more about the process itself and
how it's transmitted they'll be more comfortable with it and they'll be able
to move on." A 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl who attended the same school died
over Memorial Day weekend after becoming infected with Neisseria meningitidis
group c, a strain of bacteria that can cause meningitis. A third infected student, an 18-year-old girl who attended a different
school, remains at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron. She was
transferred out of intensive care Thursday. "She's making good progress," said Dr. Blaise Congeni. "She
was very ill, very close to death, but she's making good progress." The three students apparently had no contact with one another, leaving
community members and health officials to wonder how they all became
infected. "That's something we'll never really know and that's one of the
mysteries of this kind of outbreak," said Dr. Pratima Raghunathan of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Up to 10 percent of the population can carry the bacteria that cause meningitis
without ever becoming ill, said CDC spokesman Thomas Skinner, and those
people can also infect others. Symptoms include high fever, stiff neck and headache. Health officials say they're hopeful the outbreak is winding down. "I'm really very optimistic that this will be the end of it for a
couple of reasons," said Dr. Congeni. "There's been a large number
of individuals here who've been treated with the antibiotic. The vaccination
program is being initiated. And probably most important, school is out so
that if school and the crowding that takes place in school was playing any
role, that will be over." CNN Medical
Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen contributed to this report
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