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September 7, 2006

Confirmed: PC student being treated for meningitis

PROVIDENCE -- The state Health Department today confrimed that a Providence College student is being treated for bacterial meningitis, the first case of the disease reported in Rhode Island this year.
A department spokeswoman said the student, who lives off-campus, was improving and that no other cases of the contagious infection have been reported at the college.

The student, whose name was not released, was being treated with antibiotics at Roger Williams Medical Center, said department spokeswoman Helen Drew.

The college says it has identified people who had close contact with the student in the days before the disease was diagnosed and provided antibiotics and medical advice aimed at preventing the infection.

The illness cannot be transmitted through casual contact, though it can be spread through coughing and kissing.

Symptoms, which appear in just a few hours, include severe headaches, high fever, stiff neck and fatigue. There are usually five cases a year in the state, said Helen Drew, a Health Department spokeswoman.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 3:54 PM | Permalink

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