Feds to study state meningitis cases

DETROIT (AP) - Federal health experts are helping the state study a cluster of Detroit-area meningitis cases, three of them fatal.

Three children have died of bacterial meningitis since Sept. 28. A 10-year-old and a 3-month-old stricken with the disease remained hospitalized yesterday.

The cases appear unrelated, but tests were under way to make sure, Michigan Department of Community Health spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher said.

"We're doing laboratory work. We've also contacted the (federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to help us. That lab work continues right now," she said.

Despite the suburban Detroit cases, the number of meningitis cases statewide is about the same now last year, Lasher said.

"We don't have a spike up in the number of cases," she said.

Three-month-old Brandon Dubay of Macomb County's Harrison Township remained in critical condition yesterday at Bon Secours Hospital, spokeswoman Jan Duster said.

A 10-year-old recovering from bacterial meningitis at Detroit's St. John Hospital was in good condition yesterday, hospital spokeswoman Judy Stark said.

Bacterial meningitis has claimed the lives of Alex Wisner, 11, of Eastpointe, who died Friday; Emily Greco, 11, of St. Clair Shores, who died Thursday; and an unidentified 6-year-old Dearborn boy who died Sept. 28.

The three children were exposed to the pneumococcal bacteria that leads to meningitis, which causes swelling around the brain and spinal cord, said Dorine Berriel-Cass, an infection control practitioner at St. John.

Additionally, a few children in the Detroit area who contracted less-serious viral meningitis are recovering. In Oakland County, a 9-year-old boy was hospitalized in good condition at St. Joseph Mercy Medical Center in Pontiac, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.

She said doctors were 99 percent sure it was viral meningitis.

Viral meningitis is more common and less serious than the bacterial kind. In mild cases, people would not even go to their doctor.

It can be caused by many different viruses, and the symptoms are similar

but less severe than the bacterial form.

It is not unusual for meningitis cases to occur in the fall when school starts, said Thomas Kalkofen, director of the Macomb County Health Department.

"The number of cases are what we expect to get," Kalkofen told The Detroit News. "The fact there have been fatalities is not what we expect to get."

People come into contact with the bacteria daily, but the immune system usually fights it, Berriel-Cass told the Detroit Free Press.

At any time, 10 percent to 15 percent of the population can carry the bacteria and not get ill, the Department of Community Health has said. About 270 cases are reported statewide each year.

Symptoms of bacterial meningitis are similar to those of flu. Other symptoms include persistent headaches that aren't affected by pain relievers; stiffness in the neck and back; upset stomach; and sensitivity to light.