Rare Form of "Meningitis" Kills 2 in Calif.

Meningitis or H5n!@@! whatever...

[link to news.yahoo.com]


Rare Form of Meningitis Kills 2 in Calif.



A child and a college student have died during the past week of a rare and virulent form of meningitis, the county's top public health official said.

The child died last Wednesday and the college student died on Sunday, according to Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County's public health officer. Both had flu-like symptoms for about a week and were receiving medical care, according to Levin's office.

Authorities determined they died from meningococcemia, an acute infection of the bloodstream caused by a bacteria known as Neisseria meningitidis.

The bacteria live in the upper respiratory tract of many people, most of whom do not get sick, said Kim Kandarian, the county's public health communicable disease coordinator.

The bacteria can spread when people inhale "droplets of contaminated upper-respiratory secretions," according to a county news release. But investigators have been unable to find a direct link between the two fatal cases, Kandarian said.

"They did not have any known contact with each other," she said.

Although health officials did not provide the victims' names or ages, the student has been identified as Thomas Kent, 19, who attended Ventura College.

His mother, Robbin Thibodeaux of Long Beach, said the family does not know how he contracted the disease.

"It's a mystery," Thibodeaux said.

Medical experts say that an estimated 2,600 meningococcemia cases occur each year in the United States. Fatalities occur in about 5 percent of the child cases and 5 percent to 10 percent of the adult cases.

The disease can be prevented with a vaccine, Levin said.