San Diego State student with meningitis dies; hundreds being contacted

[mfcorey1]

(CNN) -- An 18-year-old San Diego State University student diagnosed with meningitis died Friday, leaving university officials scrambling to notify up to 400 people with whom she may have come in contact.
"Initially, we were thinking it was just a small group of people, but now we're in the range of estimates of 300-400 people that we're notifying," said Dr. Gregg Lichtenstein, director of SDSU student health services and clinical services.
"We've sent out a campuswide notification that all members of the Kappa Delta Sorority and those who attended certain fraternity parties on October 8 and 9 should receive preventive medication."
University officials say Sara Stelzer, a freshman studying pre-communications and a member of the sorority, was admitted to a local hospital Tuesday morning with flu-like symptoms.
"It is always difficult when a young life is lost, especially when that person is part of our SDSU family," Eric Rivera, vice president for student affairs, said in a statement about Stelzer's passing.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/health/california-student-meningitis-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[mainer]

1. meningococcal vaccine is recommended for all college bound students

I wonder if she was vaccinated.

[theHandpuppet]

2. I'd read that this student was ill

Meningitis is so swift and deadly. If anyone has college-age kids, please get them vaccinated!

[jen63]

3. When I got my son immunized,

he was 11. It was recommended for 11 and 12 year olds and college bound kids. Don't know if those recommendations are still in place or not. They also need a booster a year later; I was ignorant of that. My Doc didn't have a problem giving it to him so early and acted surprised by the recommendation. This was a decade ago though. Maybe things have changed. This is a disease that truly terrified me as a parent, even though it's relatively rare.

[MissB]

4. Is this that same strain that popped up last year at Princeton and UCSB?

Does anyone remember that? IIRC, it was a strain that UK immunized against but the US does not (because we don't see it here, or at least didn't.)

I think most US kids with access to medical care are vaccinated in their preteen years. Oregon had a bunch of cases in the 90s - pretty horrific disease in many cases.