A comprehensive study of the nation's largest modern outbreak of meningococcal disease among college students, which claimed the lives of three University of Illinois students in 1991-92, has provided clues about how the disease spreads among young adults. These strains were related to another that caused an outbreak in Eastern Canada at about the same time. The study was conducted by medical researchers from the U. of I., the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District and the National Center for Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Students who contracted meningococcal disease were much more likely than other students to have patronized the particular campus-area bar, where some employees carried strains of meningococcus indistinguishable from those found in the U. of I. cases. Carriage of such strains by other U. of I. students was extremely rare, according to the report.
Meningococcal disease is among the most feared infectious diseases.
The disease may start mildly, like a cold, or suddenly, often with a fever above 101 degrees, severe headache, neck or back stiffness and possibly mental confusion and rashes. While meningococcal disease occurs only rarely, on any given day millions of people carry colonies of meningococcus bacteria in their noses and throats. Although immune-system defects account for some cases of meningococcal disease, little else is known about why the usually harmless meningococcus can be so destructive. But public health officials in other areas where future outbreaks occur may wish to consider recent bar exposures and alcohol-consumption patterns of patients with meningococcal disease, particularly young adults. They may want to give special attention to whether the patient or an associate works at a campus-area bar or similar establishment.