Health officials will start administering the shots Friday to students in six schools in and around Alliance, a northeastern city of 23,000. In an outbreak that has spread fear and confusion in the Alliance area, two high school students died more than a week ago after contracting a blood infection caused by a strain of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.
Officials suspect the two shared a water bottle at a school picnic.
On Saturday, a student at another high school was diagnosed with the same kind of blood infection. The bacteria give victims either meningitis, a disease of the brain, or meningococcemia, a blood infection. The germs are spread by saliva by such means as drinking out of someone else's glass or sharing a fork or spoon. Symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck, confusion, nausea, vomiting and exhaustion. Over the weekend, thousands of people in the Alliance area lined up to get antibiotics, and about 37,000 doses were given out.