The Mukilteo School District has sent home letters with students at Voyager Middle and Mariner High schools, disclosing that one student at each has been diagnosed with viral meningitis.
"That word meningitis raises concerns with parents," school district spokesman Andy Muntz said. "We wanted to let them know this is the less serious" type of meningitis.
Bacterial meningitis is a more serious form of the disease, said Dave Petersen, director of communicable disease control for the Snohomish Health District. Only cases of bacterial meningitis must be reported to the countywide public health agency, he said.
Muntz said he thought the Voyager student, who is in the sixth grade, had been hospitalized, but did not know if the student still was there.
"We just learned about the Mariner student today," Muntz said Monday evening, adding he wasn’t sure if that student had been hospitalized and didn’t have any further information.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord. It is serious, but rarely fatal in people with normal immune systems. Symptoms include fever, headache, stiff neck, rash with low-grade fever, convulsions, nausea and vomiting.
The virus is spread through actions such as contact with saliva, shaking hands with someone who is infected or touching something an infected person has touched, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms of viral meningitis last seven to 10 days, About one out of every 1,000 people infected actually develops meningitis.
Viral meningitis is generally less severe and patients often get better without specific treatment, while bacterial meningitis can be quite severe and may result in brain damage, hearing loss or learning disability, according to the CDC.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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