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Infant Dies from Meningitis

It’s another case of meningococcal meningitis in Central Oregon; this time in Deschutes County, and it took the life of an infant. Close contacts to the baby have been contacted. At this time, there is no known connection to the two confirmed Crook County cases. Tom Kuhn with Deschutes County Public Health: ‘We have no evidence so far to show that these cases are connected; we've done some investigations to see if these people knew each other and so far, that's come up negative. The next step will be to identify what strain of the disease that it might be and if they are all the same strain. At that point we may be able to better connect the dots, but we don't know all the strains of them at this time." Kuhn says its very rare and not very contagious, especially if you have a strong immune system. Health officials say those are higher risk are smokers, college students in dorm room, military recruits, some world travelers, and people who have certain immune system disorders. There is also a vaccine available to protect against some strains.

 

 

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