The student, a male freshman living on the second floor of Blaisdell Hall on the Pomona College campus, was diagnosed with the disease Friday night. The student was brought by a student sponsor to the College's health facility, Baxter Medical Building, suffering from a headache, and was taken immediately to the emergency room of Pomona Valley Medical Center, where he was hospitalized and is now reported to be doing well.
Meningococcal meningitis is a rare and serious bacterial infection of the brain and spinal cord.
Normally it is not spread through casual contact, but through close or household contact. Following the diagnosis, the College began early Saturday morning the process of seeking out students who might have come in close contact with the affected student in order to provide them with prophylactic antibiotics as a safeguard against the spread of the disease. Other students in the affected student's sponsor group, other residents of his residence hall floor, and students who had been in close contact with him are being asked to come to Baxter Medical Building to begin a precautionary round of appropriate antibiotics. Early symptoms of the disease usually include fever, severe headache, stiff neck, rash, nausea, vomiting and lethargy, and may resemble those of the flu. Since the disease progresses rapidly, often in as little as 12 hours, health officials recommend that anyone experiencing two or more of these symptoms concurrently seek medical attention.