Penn students hospitalized; meningitis not confirmed

Two more University of Pennsylvania students with flu-like symptoms have been hospitalized, the university reported yesterday, but they were not confirmed to have the meningitis that hospitalized three others last week.

Those three students "have made significant improvement and are recovering," the university said in a statement yesterday. The two additional students, both involved in the same social network as the other three, are undergoing further evaluation.

The university will resume normal operations this morning, after a weekend in which the administration canceled all official and student-sponsored parties as a precautionary measure.

As of yesterday afternoon, Penn and city public-health officials had provided preventive antibiotic treatment to more than 2,100 students, the university's statement said. Students swarmed over the weekend to the school's special health-services clinic, on 35th Street near Market, for treatment.

Penn officials are asking all students who attended fraternity or sorority events since Feb. 2 to seek preventive antibiotic treatment, and emphasizing that no one who already received antibiotics needs to repeat the regimen.

University officials believe that the contact point for the meningitis was a fraternity or sorority event. Meningitis can be caused by a bacterial or viral infection, and can leave an infected victim gravely ill from an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Early symptoms include fever, severe headache, sensitivity to bright light, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, rash, and lethargy.