Penn on alert after 2 meningitis cases, 1 critical

University of Pennsylvania students and staff were put on alert yesterday that two undergraduates had been hospitalized with meningitis.

One student was in stable condition, but the other was critical, an afternoon e-mail from the university said.

People who had likely been in close, prolonged contact with the sick students were identified before the e-mail went out, Penn spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said. Such contact is required for transmission of the bacteria that cause the disease, according to the e-mail and information from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 115 students identified as potentially infected were given antibiotics yesterday evening, said Evelyn Wiener, director of the Student Health Service.

She said she expected today to be busy.

"There's always a significant level of concern within the university community about these cases," Wiener said.

Bacterial meningitis, a serious infection of spinal-cord fluid and the fluid around the brain, can be successfully treated. It can, however, lead to brain damage, hearing loss or worse. The disease killed Penn sophomore Anne Ryan, 19, in fall 2007, and afterward her family sued the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

State law requires students in campus housing to be vaccinated against the disease or comply with waiver requirements, but Penn requires all undergraduates to be vaccinated, Wiener said.

Because of privacy concerns, she would not say if the two infected students had been vaccinated, but she said undergraduate compliance was close to 100 percent.

A student can become infected even if vaccinated, Wiener said.

Common symptoms include fever, severe headache, sensitivity to light, a stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, rash, and lethargy. Penn's e-mail encouraged community members experiencing those complaints to see a physician.