Antibiotics Offered After Two Students Contract Meningitis As Many As 900 People May Have Been Exposed, Says Health Official

Hundreds of Hayden Meadows Elementary School students, staff members and Hayden School PLUS participants will be offered antibiotics this week after two youngsters contracted bacterial meningitis.

A 6-year-old and a 7-year-old have come down with the illness in recent days, said Marie Rau, public health nursing supervisor for the Panhandle Health District.

Both children have been hospitalized and are doing well, Rau said.

As many as 900 people may have been exposed to the illness, which infects the fluid around the brain and spinal cord.

In December, a Coeur d’Alene woman died and two other people - including a 6-year-old from Hayden Meadows Elementary - were hospitalized after contracting bacterial meningitis.

“It’s unusual,” Rau said. “We don’t usually have very many cases of meningitis. We’re calling it an outbreak.”

Health officials are unsure whether the Hayden Meadows cases are related, since the incubation period between the illnesses has passed.

Officials at the Coeur d’Alene School District and at Hayden Meadows could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Meningitis can be caused by a virus or a bacteria, with bacterial cases generally being more severe. Between 5 percent and 25 percent of the population carries the bacterium that causes the ailment. About 15 percent of those who contract the disease will die, health officials say.

No one is sure what causes the bug to move beyond the throat and infect the rest of the body.

The bacteria are carried in fluids from the nose and mouth and are spread only through close, prolonged contact such as sharing food, drinks or cigarettes, health officials say.

Symptoms of bacterial meningitis include fever, rash, severe headaches, stiff neck, nausea and vomiting.

The last case of large-scale antibiotics distribution was in 1995 at Betty Kiefer Elementary School in Rathdrum, Rau said. Hundreds of students lined up for the medication after two children there came down with meningitis.

Rau said she urges those who may have been infected to take advantage of the antibiotics.

“It’s just really important,” she said. “I don’t know how to do all this without scaring the community … We’re not frantic here. We’re being as proactive as we can be.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Antibiotic clinics

Antibiotics will be given todayfor staff members and children weighing more than 70 pounds. Smaller children can receive the antibiotics Wednesday. Both clinics run from 3:30 to 7 p.m. at Hayden Meadows Elementary School. Health officials say only staff and students at the school and those in the Hayden School Plus Program, which serves Hayden Meadows, Hayden Lake, Ramsey and Dalton elementary schools, need the antibiotics.