U.S.

meningitis Kills 2 Ohio Teens

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 8, 2001 / 11:02 AM EDT / CBS

Ohio's first mass inoculation against a meningitis outbreak got under way Friday in Alliance with vaccination shots for 5,800 area high school students and staff.

Health officials turned schools into makeshift clinics so they could inoculate students and staff from six high schools after a bacterial meningitis outbreak killed two teens and sickened a third. The Ohio Department of Health said the shots were only precautionary but were necessary to help ease the fears of residents in this blue-collar community of 23,000.

In a separate outbreak in Walnut Creek, Calif., one man died and three others were infected with a non-contagious form of meningitis after they received cortisone shots contaminated with the bacteria, Contra Costa County health investigators said.

In Ohio, about 50 medical personnel started the inoculation program at Alliance High School by giving vaccine doses to teachers first so they could later help with the effort. As teachers lined up for their shots, a handful of students arrived to take makeup final exams.

About 1,500 people were expected to be inoculated at Alliance High School, which set out tables filled with jars of cotton balls and hazardous waste containers for the disposal of used needles.

The shots last three to five years and are up to 90 percent effective against four strains of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, including the one that inflicted the students.

State health officials said the only way to contract the bacteria is through saliva or mucus. But they also admit that they do not yet know — and may never know — exactly how the students were infected.

The families of the dead teens say the two were not friends and disputed reports that they may have passed the infection by sharing a water bottle at a school picnic.

News of the third case caused fear in Alliance, home to Mount Union College. Thousands of residents stood in line for hours at area hospitals last weekend to get preventive antibiotic pills, which last only one to two days. A hot line was set up for anyone with questions about the vaccination program.

In California, Contra Costa County health investigators said that a total of 20 patients received a cortisone injection into their spinal fluid at Sierra SurgiCenter in Walnut Creek on either May 29 or May 31.

The solution was mixed at Doc's Pharmacy & Home Health Care Center in Walnut Creek, said Dr. Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa director of public health. That is where the contamination occurred, he told the Contra Costa Times

One man, 47-year-old George Stahl of Concord, died from the infection May 30, 24 hours after receiving a shot for lower back pain. An elderly man who received a shot May 31 also died within the last week, though doctors are not sure if it was from meningitis.

Seven others have been hospitalized — six at John Muir Medical Center, spokeswoman Patricia Hefner said.

Three are confirmed to have the meningitis, another wo have symptoms but their affliction is not yet known and one has a different blood infection, Hefner said.

This strain meningitis — called "serratia marcescens" — poses no risk to the community, Brunner said.

This form of meningitis is not related to meningococcal meningitis — the contagious form of the illness transmitted through kissing, sharing drinks, or other close contact — that is blamed for the recent deaths of two people in the Bay Area.