Har-Ber High Teen Diagnosed With Bacterial Meningitis
Last updated Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:25 PM CST in News
By Rose Ann Pearce
THE MORNING NEWS
SPRINGDALE -- A student at Har-Ber High School is at Arkansas Children's Hospital suffering from bacterial meningitis, a sometimes life-threatening infection of the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and the brain.
The condition of the student, a sophomore, was not immediately known, but the student was taken to the Little Rock hospital Monday. The student was reportedly in school Monday morning but left sometime during the day.
School officials declined to identify the student by age and gender because of federal privacy laws.
Principal Danny Brackett was notified by Arkansas Health Department officials Wednesday morning of the student's diagnosis.
He spent Wednesday notifying parents of students who had close and prolonged contact with the student, such as students who sat to the immediate right or left or across from the infected student in class.
Brackett met with the student's teachers after receiving the call from the health department, according to Rick Schaeffer, the school's public information director.
Health officials identified close and prolonged contact as those students within 6 feet of the infected student for a class period. Students who passed the infected student in the hallways or other common areas at the school were not determined to be in immediate contact.
It was not immediately known when the student became ill or how the student came into contact with the disease. Schools opened Monday after a three-day Thanksgiving holiday.
Har-Ber has an enrollment of about 1,400 students in grades 10 through 12.
According to the Centers for Disease Control Web site, bacterial meningitis can be severe and may result in brain damage, hearing loss or learning disability. Antibiotics can prevent the spread of some types of bacterial meningitis.
The disease, if diagnosed early enough, can be treated with antibiotics.
A preventive vaccine, Menactra, is available for people ages 11 to 55, according to the state health department. The vaccine is recommended for high school-age students and is available at county health units, said Ed Barham, public information officer.
There has been a low occurrence of cases this year and last. Through October 2008, there were seven cases of bacterial meningitis in Arkansas; there were nine cases in all of 2007.
AT A GLANCE
Bacterial Meningitis
Symptoms
Symptoms of bacterial meningitis can be severe and may result in brain damage, hearing loss and learning disability. Symptoms of the disease can include:
• Fever
• Headache
• Stiff neck
• Confusion
• Seizures
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Discomfort looking into bright lights
• Sleepiness
How The Disease Is Spread
Some forms of bacterial meningitis are contagious, spread through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions, such as coughing or kissing. The bacteria is not spread by casual contact or by breathing the air where a person with meningitis has been.
What Parents Can Do
If symptoms occur, parents should contact their physicians immediately. Early diagnosis and treatment are very important.
Parents can also consider having their children, ages 11 and older, vaccinated to protect them from developing forms of the disease. More information is available at county health units.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas Health Department
Reader Comments (2 comment(s))
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sellis wrote on Dec 4, 2008 3:02 PM:
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/ohe/library/cold/Transmission.htm "
Not already registered?
jessicaisback wrote on Dec 4, 2008 10:14 AM:
As a precaution they should wash the classrooms with chlorine, specially the furniture. "