GW officials breathed a sigh of relief Friday when medical tests from a Thurston Hall resident who possibly contracted a deadly form of meningitis came back negative.
Despite initial University concern and safety precautions, the male freshman is not contagious or a threat to public health, officials said. The student, who was taken to the GW Hospital Wednesday night, has viral meningitis - a form of the disease that should clear up in seven to 10 days.
GW sees two to three cases of viral meningitis every year, said Isabel Goldenberg, a university physician and director of Student Health Administration. There is no vaccine available for viral meningitis.
She said GW has never seen a case of the sometimes lethal meningococcal meningitis, which is spread through respiratory throat secretions exchanged during kissing or coughing.
Meningococcal meningitis plagues 600 people between the ages of 15 and 25, a quarter of whom are college students, said James Turner, chair of the vaccine preventable disease task force for the American College Health Association. This form of the disease kills 15 to 20 percent of its victims and causes severe medical problems such as kidney failure and amputations in another 15 to 20 percent. A vaccine for menningococcal meningitis is available but not mandated by GW . (See "Scare Prompts Vaccine Discussion" )
Although initially unsure of the student's diagnosis, the University took precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for a person with meningococcal meningitis.
Goldenberg said the student's room was sanitized with Clorox and Lysol and vacuumed. The student's roommates, along with others in close contact with him, were examined and deemed disease-free.
One of the roommates of the individual declined to comment.
The student was in isolation at the hospital until test results were confirmed.
The deadly form of meningitis can only be spread through very close contact, by being about a foot away from the infected person, Goldenberg said.
