2008 Woodie Awards
UNH Health Services creates awareness among students about meningitis
Laura Kennedy
Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: News
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Due to the recent death of UNH senior, Danielle Thompson, from bacterial meningitis, on Jan. 3, 2007, UNH Health Services is doing their best to promote awareness and inform students about the disease, as well as educating students on how to recognize and treat symptoms before it's too late.
According to Executive Director of Health Services Kevin Charles in an e-mail sent out to UNH students, an incident like this can bring up a number of health-related questions and concerns and Health Services would like to provide information to address these.
Although it is more frequently caught on college campuses, UNH Health Services wants to stress that the disease is very rare.
"We don't want to make a big deal out of it, and we are just trying to get students to be aware of the disease," said Judy Stevens, the community health nurse and wellness educator for UNH Health Services. "We are getting information out and trying to inform the students more so of the disease and what it can do, as well as symptoms, rather than scare them off with a very mere statistic of a very rare disease,"
There are two kinds of meningitis, viral bacterial meningitis and bacterial meningitis.
Viral meningitis is the most common version and does not cause serious illness. It is more prevalent in late summer and early fall and is easier to recover from than bacterial meningitis.
Between 80 percent and 92 percent of people who get viral meningitis every year in the United States are infected by viruses that commonly live in the intestines. They can cause meningitis when they are passed from one person to another through food, water or contaminated objects.
"Most people catch this very rare but serious disease through means of kissing, sharing drinks, smoking, coughing and other person-to-person contact. It is caught by similar means to mono," said Stevens.
With mild cases of viral meningitis a person may need only home treatment and can recover within two weeks with off and on symptoms of feeling lightheaded and tired for several months after the illness.
According to Executive Director of Health Services Kevin Charles in an e-mail sent out to UNH students, an incident like this can bring up a number of health-related questions and concerns and Health Services would like to provide information to address these.
Although it is more frequently caught on college campuses, UNH Health Services wants to stress that the disease is very rare.
"We don't want to make a big deal out of it, and we are just trying to get students to be aware of the disease," said Judy Stevens, the community health nurse and wellness educator for UNH Health Services. "We are getting information out and trying to inform the students more so of the disease and what it can do, as well as symptoms, rather than scare them off with a very mere statistic of a very rare disease,"
There are two kinds of meningitis, viral bacterial meningitis and bacterial meningitis.
Viral meningitis is the most common version and does not cause serious illness. It is more prevalent in late summer and early fall and is easier to recover from than bacterial meningitis.
Between 80 percent and 92 percent of people who get viral meningitis every year in the United States are infected by viruses that commonly live in the intestines. They can cause meningitis when they are passed from one person to another through food, water or contaminated objects.
"Most people catch this very rare but serious disease through means of kissing, sharing drinks, smoking, coughing and other person-to-person contact. It is caught by similar means to mono," said Stevens.
With mild cases of viral meningitis a person may need only home treatment and can recover within two weeks with off and on symptoms of feeling lightheaded and tired for several months after the illness.
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