Federal agency deems meningitis incidents an outbreak

The federal Centers for Disease Control has changed its designation for recent bacterial meningitis cases involving Ohio University students from a cluster to an outbreak, OU Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi told The Columbus Dispatch on Saturday night.

These include eight cases involving students since 2008. On Feb. 17, an OU student, Andrea Robinson, 18, of Cleveland Heights, died of meningitis.

The reason for the change in classification, Lombardi told the newspaper, is that CDC testing indicated that all the cases were caused by the same strain of meningitis, which is resistant to the commonly offered meningitis vaccine. The university is still encouraging vaccinations for meningitis, however, and most students already have them.

In collaboration with the county and state health departments, members of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) visited OU's Athens campus as part of an epidemiology study on bacterial meningitis, an article in OU Outlook reported last Monday.

The CDC had planned to interview students, meet with selected faculty and staff, and conduct other research and study activities, the piece said. Outlook is the online news outlet for OU Communications and Marketing.

According to the CDC's Web site, "An outbreak or an epidemic exists when there are more cases of a particular disease than expected in a given area, or among a specific group of people, over a particular period of time.

"An aggregation of cases in a given area over a particular period, regardless of whether the number of cases is more than expected, is a cluster."

In an outbreak or epidemic, the CDC states, "we usually presume that the cases are related to one another or that they have a common cause."

In the Outlook story, Ryan Lombardi, associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said OU was pleased to welcome the CDC team to OU.

"Ohio (the university) is taking a leadership position in keeping our students informed as to how they can minimize their health risks.

"Our collaboration with the county and state health departments and the CDC is an important component in our student health and wellness programs and part of our comprehensive education and awareness initiatives that include delivering information and services to parents, students, faculty, and staff."

The Dean of Students office has provided parents of OU students with information on bacterial meningitis and other health risks faced by college students. Student- and parent-awareness forums are in the planning phase as are online links to health-risk management information and strategies, the article stated.

"The Athens health department applauds the efforts of Ohio University to prevent cases of bacterial meningitis on the campus and strongly supports this investigation," James R. Gaskell, commissioner of the Athens City/County Health Department, said in the Outlook article.

Gaskell could not be reached for comment yesterday.