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UC alerts students to bacterial meningitis case

Updated: Jan 19, 2012 3:30 PM EST

By Richard Todd - email

CINCINNATI (FOX19) - -

A University of Cincinnati student has been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.

An email was sent to all students on Thursday with some details on the case.

The university said in the letter that they've notified students who have been in close contact with the infected student and have provided them prophylactic antibiotics.

The Centers for Disease Control says that while bacterial meningitis is not as easily transmitted as many common diseases, it can be very dangerous, and frequently fatal, when it is.

It is treated effectively with antibiotics, but it is essentially to start treatment as quickly as possible.

The student does not live on campus.

http://www.fox19.com/story/16557057/uc-a...ormat=HTML

Scary stuff. I once saw a dude that walked onto a plane in California to go to the East coast, they made an emergency stop at CVG due to him not looking right, and by the they got him to the hospital his cerebrospinal fluid was just about frank pus and his neurologic exam and imaging were dismal. Fever, headache, stiff neck, light hurts your eyes, maybe nausea... that's usually all the warning you get.

I had viral meningitis back in college, which is the safer kind to have i guess is the best way to describe it. I was laid up in a hospital for 3 days and it was nothing but misery for like 2 weeks. The headaches were the most painful thing of my life to the point it was making me throw up from pain.

I know a guy whose son got this in college. He had a mild headache for a day and then went into seizures. He was in a drug induced coma for two months because every time they brought him out he'd seize. Long story short, he's never really recovered. The inflammation and damage has been permanent and he's fully dependent on his parents. Nasty nasty stuff.