posted
A boy at my school passed away in his sleep. He had meningitis, and apparently, he didn't even know because he never told anyone how badly he must have been feeling. I didn't know him, but I knew some of his friends, and it's a very small school, besides.
Everyone is really shocked, and last I checked, although my school "strongly recommends" meningitis vaccinations, it doesn't actually require them.
I know there was a thread about this not long ago, but I felt like this incident really needed its own.
I have a few questions, myself: If you get a meningitis vaccine, is it against bacterial or viral meningitis? What does meningitis actually feel like, anyway? I mean, the list of symptoms isn't very helpful. A couple of my friends are scared because they've had some of those symptoms, but that kind of thing could probably also be caused by stress. How do you know? When is it time to get help? Obviously, the entire school can't rush the health center in search of medicine. Is there anything that people can do on their own at home to help protect themselves from or decrease the severity of the infection? Most sites I've seen have just said, "Treat the fever, take Tylenol, etc." But it seems like there should be something more that we can do.
I feel so sad for the boy and his family, especially since it was so sudden and unexpected.
posted
We've had like 3 UL students die of meningitis in the last two weeks, and yes, everybody else did rush to the student health center to get vaccinated. It's my understanding the vaccination protects against the bacterial strain, which is the much more serious one. But then again, there's a 50/50 chance I'm wrong.
posted
I'm not so much worried about everybody wanting to go get vaccinated. This guy lived in upperclassman housing, so there were probably a LOT of people exposed to him. Supposedly, the health center will hand out medicine to anyone who thinks he/she was exposed. But what happens when they run out, you know? Then maybe some kid who really needed it won't get any because everybody who got a migraine took it all.
posted
The vaccine is actually just against meningococcal meningitis, the most scary, deadly, rapid acting kind of bacterial meningitis. Most likely that's what the university student had, especially if he died in his sleep. It'd be worth getting the vaccine, although, since you don't live in a dorm, it isn't a necessity.
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posted
Can either of you two explain to me why this is so deadly? I don't know anything about it, but it was always my impression that there weren't a lot of diseases that could kill an otherwise healthy 22 year old in a few days anymore.
It just seemed strange. The only other thing I could think of was a staph infection.
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quote: Appropriate antibiotic treatment of most common types of bacterial meningitis should reduce the risk of dying from meningitis to below 15%, although the risk is higher among the elderly.
Treatment reducing the risk of dying to below 15%... That alone should give a pretty good indication how dangerous an illness this really is. One of my friends went into seizures because of bacterial meningitis and had to be taken to the ER. He made it through without any permanent damage, but he's also been told he is extremely lucky.
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posted
The meningitis vaccine only protects against certain strains of meningococci. It's recommended for students entering college because they tend to live in close quarters with people from many different areas.
Meningitis is characterized by severe headache with fever and stiff neck. Any febrile illness with headache should be evaluated by a physician. Close contacts of meningitis cases (boyfriends & girlfriends, room mates, close friends that might have shared food or drink, team mates of athletes) should be given prophylatic medications to protect them from getting it as well. A single dose of Cipro is protective for most adults.
A suspect diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is one of the few events that will cause the health department to drop every thing and do immediate contact tracing and prophylactic distribution. It's about the only time I ever have to work evenings or weekends. Bacterial menigitis is nothing to mess around with.
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posted
Here's the fact sheet from the National Immunization Program for meningicoccal vaccine.
The vaccine does not protect against meningococcal disease caused by “type B” bacteria, which cause about 1/3 of all meningitis infections. It also does not protect against other types of bacterial meningitis (Hib, Strep, Staph), which are not as life threatening, but still very serious. And of course, most meningitis is viral, which is nasty, but not usually life threatening.
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posted
Personally, I got a meningitis vaccine before I went to college, but I don't know how many of my friends did.
How long does the vaccine last?
Does Cipro have very common bad side effects that discourage people from taking it if they just had a bad headache and sore neck, or something? I mean, we're just ending the first seven weeks, which means a lot of people don't have time to sleep enough, eat properly, and are generally under a ton of stress anyway, and that kind of thing could definitely cause neck soreness/tension and headaches and probably a lot of the other symptoms, as well.
posted
A single dose of Cipro won't get rid of meningitis... usually IV rocephin is given. But it will prevent you from becoming ill if you have been exposed and are at risk. It will also clear an asymptomatic carrier condition, preventing further spread.
I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but somewhere between 20-30% of healthy adults are asymptomatic carriers of meningococci. Periods of stress, dry atmospheric conditions, overcrowding or other situations can cause the disease to manifest. Sometimes the carrier himself will become symptomatic, but he could also expose a close contact (kissing, sharing food, or just overcrowding) who will then develop symptoms.
There's no easy solution. Yes, stress can cause neck pain and headache, but not usually fever (defined as 100.4F or above).
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I feel so sad for the boy and his family, especially since it was so sudden and unexpected.
