NY: Counselor and Student Meningitis Deaths

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Meningitis Kills Queens School Counselor, Long Island Student

Health Officials Still Investigating Cases of Deadly Contagious Infection

NEW YORK (AP) - A guidance counselor at a Catholic school in Queens has died of bacterial meningitis.

City health officials say the victim was on the faculty at the Saint Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadow. New York City investigators are still looking into whether any relatives or close friends of the victim might have been at risk of contracting the disease, which is contagious but is not spread through casual contact.

A high school student in Massapequa, on Long Island also died from the disease this week.

The student's case of meningococcal meningitis developed so fast that he died within a day of starting to feel sick, relatives and health officials said.

Massapequa High School senior Michael Gruber, 17, took a state Regents exam Wednesday and went to bed with flu-like symptoms that night. By Thursday morning, he so ill he was taken to a local hospital. By Thursday afternoon, he was dead, family members and officials said.

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Acting Nassau County Health Commissioner Abby Greenberg said the bacterial infection is known to progress quickly, but not usually quite so fast.

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1. oh boy. Now what!

Horribly sad.

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2. I became aware of concerns about meningitis in the youth population

in the United States when recommendations to vaccinate college students started to circulate a few years ago. Colleges in particular were concerned when parents in Michigan wanted to sue after their son's death.

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3. isn't it mandated now for colleges?

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4. IIRC, the vaccination is still voluntary. The difference now is notification. n/t