Girl’s Viral Meningitis No Reason To Panic

The hospitalization Tuesday of an 8-year-old Colville girl with viral meningitis is not a cause for panic, Stevens County’s top health official said.

Dr. Ed Gray, health officer for the Northeast Tri-County Health District, said the girl’s classmates at Hofstetter Elementary School are being advised that viral meningitis is not uncommon and usually is not life-threatening.

Gray said viral meningitis is completely different from bacterial meningococcal meningitis, which attacks the blood and spinal fluid. It killed a 15-year-old Weippe, Idaho, boy last year, and a University of Idaho student had to have her lower legs amputated because of the illness.

Viral meningitis victims typically get very sick but recover fully, Gray said. He predicted the Colville girl also will be fine. “In talking with her physician today, she was doing all right, as one would expect,” he said.

There is no preventive treatment for viral meningitis except good hygiene, Gray said.

“Fortunately, viral forms are not very contagious,” and quarantines are unnecessary, he said.

, DataTimes