Mississippian's are on Health Alert Following a Meningitis Death and the Spread of H1N1

While only one case of meningitis has been reported in the state, nearly 500 Mississippian's have been diagnosed and successfully treated for swine flu, many of whom are students. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports Doctors are asking citizens to use caution but not to panic.

Meningitis and swine flu can both be considered an airborne disease, spread through close contact with an infected person. Although their symptoms are similar Dr. Zeb Henson, with the Department of Medicine at University Medical Center is urging parents not to be alarmed.

“We don’t wanna be running every child that has a fever to the pediatric emergency room or to your local doctor because we’re just gonna overwhelm everything. So what you wanna do is look for a fever plus rash, persistent vomiting, persistent headaches or changes in how the child is thinking or walking. Things like that should be the things that have parents concerned enough to get into the emergency room.”

When a Vicksburg student recently became ill and died from meningitis Henson says it was a rare event in the state. Still he stresses the importance of taking precautions.

“Having your children vaccinated before they get off to college and get put in a dormitory in a lot of close quarters or before they join the military and do some of the same things can prevent that spread if there was somebody there to that happen to contract that specific meningitis.”

That's why Jackson State University, computer engineering student John Claybourne is practicing universal precautions from the dorm room to the class room.

“You see people use the restroom but they never go to the sink, so most of the time when I open the door to any restroom I generally have a towel. People sneeze and they don’t generally take the necessary precautions to protect other people.”

For more information about the meningitis or swine flu vaccines contact your local health provider. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.