An 18-year old female student at Bentley College in Waltham, Greater Boston, Massachusetts, died in New York yesterday, Monday 8th October, from bacterial meningitis, according to a report in the Boston Globe.
Erin Ortiz, a first year student, was visiting her family in New Hampton, New York when she fell ill and was admitted to Westchester Medical Center.
The college authorities at Bentley are urging anyone who may have had close contact with Ortiz to seek medical attention and start taking antibiotics as a precaution.
The infection is passed through contact with an infected person’s saliva, such as during kissing, sharing a cup or sharing food.
Bentley vice president, Kathleen Yorkis said in an email to the college community that Erin was greatly loved and had a wide circle of friends. She said the loss affects everyone, and the way to honour Erin’s memory was to reach out and take care of each other, said the report in the Boston Globe.
Symptoms of bacterial meningitis usually develop over several hours, and sometimes take one or two days. They include high fever, headache and stiff neck, and depending on which bacteria is involved, small purple spots or blotches on the trunk and lower extremeties. Other symptoms include vomiting, nausea, difficulty looking at bright lights, feeling sleepy and confused. In very young children symptoms are difficult to detect, and some of them may be absent as well as confused with normal baby problems like irritability from toothache. Seizures normally follow as the disease progresses.
There were 21 cases of bacterial meningitis recorded in Massauchussets last year.
Meningitis literally means inflammation of the protective layer of fluid and tissue (the meninges) that surrounds the spinal cord and the brain. The most common causes are either bacterial or viral infections, although other conditions such as fungal infections, cancer and physical injury can also lead to meningitis.
Viral meningitis is usually not as severe as bacterial meningitis and often resolves itself.
Bacterial meningitis can be very serious and can lead to brain damage, loss of hearing, and learning disability. It is important to know what type of bacteria is involved in order to prescribe the correct antibiotics as a precaution for those who are at risk. Lab tests have not yet confirmed which type of bacteria killed Erin Ortiz.
Because of effective vaccination campaigns, incidence of bacterial meningitis due to Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is much lower than that caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis, two types of bacteria that are responsible for most cases of bacterial meningitis in the US today.
Bacterial meningitis is treatable with a range of antibiotics and early diagnosis and treatment is crucial and can keep the risk of dying to below 15 per cent.
According to a report in the Times Herald-Record earlier today, Ortiz was a scholar-athlete from Goshen, Orange County in New York, and was studying corporate finance and accounting at Bentley, Massachusetts. She arrived in New Hampton by train from Boston to New York City, for the Columbus Day break on Friday.
Her father told the paper his daughter felt ill as soon as she arrived on the Friday. She took a headache pill and felt better the next day, Saturday. But the fever came back on the Saturday night and she woke early Sunday with chills and a bad headache.
Erin was taken to Arden Hill Campus of Orange Regional Medical Center where doctors took a CAT scan of her brain and found that the infection had already damaged her brain stem and parts of the brain, which were inflamed, her father told the paper. She was taken to Westchester Medical Centre in Valhalla but by the Sunday night she was much worse and succumbed to the disease.
Her father said Erin had had all the available vaccines for meningitis, that treat three of the four most common strains, but he guessed she must have contracted the fourth strain.
Orange County health commissioner, Dr Jean M Hudson told the Times Herald-Record that lab tests had not yet identified the bacterial meningitis strain that killed Erin and confirmed it was unlikely to be a strain for which she had been vaccinated. An autopsy will also be conducted to try and establish exactly which bacteria caused the infection.
Anyone who experiences the tell tale meningitis symptoms of extreme headache, stiff neck and confusion should seek emergency medical help immediately said Hudson.
Click here for Boston Globe report “Meningitis kills Bentley freshman, 18”.
Click here for Times Herald-Record report “Meningitis kills 18-year-old Goshen graduate Erin Ortiz”.
Written by: Catharine Paddock