Two fatal cases of bacterial meningitis struck a high school guidance counselor and a 17-year-old high school senior over a 24 hour period and within a few miles of each other, but the deaths are most likely coincidental, the New York Times reports.
Both incidents occurred on Long Island, one of them in the New York City borough of Queens and the other a few miles southeast in the town of Massapequa. The Queens case involved 27-year-old LeeAnne Burke of Bellerose, who became ill earlier in the week, was hospitalized and died Friday. The Massapequa meningitis illness struck Michael Gruber, 17, a senior at Massapequa High School, Wednesday afternoon after he took a state exam and began exhibiting flu-like symptoms, the newspaper reported.
Gruber was rushed to the hospital Thursday morning and died that afternoon.
"We have to recognize that this is a scary disease for people, but you have to put into perspective how rare it is," Dr. Don Weiss, director of surveillance for the New York City Department of Healths bureau of communicable disease, told the newspaper "It's a freak situation when it gets communicated."
Dr. Abby Greenberg, acting commissioner for the Nassau County Department of Health, told the Times that all people who had been in close contact with Gruber had received antibiotics.
About 10 percent of the 3,000-to-4,000 cases of meningococcal meningitis reported in the United States each year are fatal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include a sore neck, headaches, flu-like symptoms and a high fever.
