Student health fears over suspected meningitis

STUDENTS were offered antibiotics yesterday following reports of two suspected cases of meningitis in a West Cork school.

The move follows the confirmation on Thursday of a case of meningitis in a third-level student from the same town.

Public health experts visited Maria Immaculata Community College in Dunmanway and offered antibiotics to students in the same year as the two students with suspected meningitis.

All close contacts of the suspected cases were also offered antibiotics and GPs in the area have been notified.

Dr Fiona Ryan, a consultant in public health medicine, urged people to be aware of the signs and symptoms of the disease.

While a vaccine for the meningococcal C strain of the disease was introduced in October 2000, no vaccine has yet been developed for meningococcal B which can be just as serious as the C strain and has very similar symptoms.

Meningitis symptoms can present as septicaemia (blood poisoning).

The illness - which causes an inflammation of the brain lining - can develop very rapidly, sometimes in a matter of hours.

Twenty-nine cases of meningococcal B were reported in Cork and Kerry last year.