Mansfield student has bacterial meningitis

ST. LOUIS -- Parents of students in two southern Missouri school districts are being told to watch their children for symptoms after a high school student was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.

The student is from the Mansfield School District but also attended the Ozark Mountain Technical Center that is part of the school district in nearby Mountain Grove.

Superintendents in Mansfield and Mountain Grove sent letters to parents Sunday, saying those who have had close contact with the student have been identified and treated. No other students have shown signs of the disease.

The letters noted that while developing meningitis through "secondary contact" with an infected person is rare, health officials were being proactive in trying to reduce any risk.

Mansfield superintendent Randy Short declined to release the student's name, age or gender.

He said the student was showing improvement and had been released from the hospital. Still, he called the news frightening.

"I got spooked, let me tell you," Short said.

Meningitis can be caused by a bacterial or viral infection. The viral form is generally less severe. Bacterial meningitis can result in brain damage, hearing loss, learning disability and death.

Symptoms of bacterial meningitis include fever, headache, stiff neck and sensitivity to light. Experts say early detection is important and plays a big role in lessening the impact of the disease. Short said the case in Mansfield was caught early.

Earlier this month, two soldiers stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in mid-Missouri, one from Indiana and one from Alabama, died of bacterial meningitis. A male nurse on the Army base had viral meningitis, but is recovering.

The state health department has cited three other meningitis cases so far this year, most recently a 15-year-old girl from Camdenton. A spokeswoman for Camdenton schools said Monday that the girl is still hospitalized but getting better.

Last year, Missouri reported 26 meningitis cases, including three deaths.

Mansfield is a town of 1,300 residents, about 45 miles east of Springfield. The school district has one grade school, one middle school and one high school, with total enrollment of 725 students.