North Marion football player hospitalized with viral meningitis

By Andrew Manzo
Times West Virginian

RACHEL August 18, 2007 12:32 am

— A North Marion High School student and football player was hospitalized Thursday after developing viral meningitis.
Gerry White, head football coach, and Gary Price, Marion County Board of Education administrative assistant of personnel and student services, confirmed the student’s parents reported he had developed the infection.
The student-athlete’s condition is improving.
“I talked to him last night, and he said he’s already feeling better,” White said following the Huskies’ scrimmage Friday morning against Bridgeport. “They have him on antibiotics and think he’ll be OK in three or four days. He thinks he can get back by the end of next week maybe.”
Meningitis is an infection of the fluid in the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain, which is usually caused by an infection with a virus or a bacterium.
Viral meningitis is usually relatively mild and clears up in a week or two without specific treatment.
Bacterial meningitis is very serious. Severe bacterial meningitis can result in brain damage and even death.
White and Price both said the school has taken all appropriate procedures, including letting parents know how to take care of clothing and practice gear. The locker rooms have been disinfected by the coaches and maintenance staff under the supervision of Brad Straight, BOE maintenance supervisor.
“We feel we’ve taken the appropriate steps at this point to deal with the situation,” Price said. “We try to make the parents and participants feel we have addressed it in an open and honest manner.”
White added, “They told us (Thursday) afternoon that we had to get all of our equipment disinfected. We got them all wiped down with Clorox wipes that clean your helmets and shoulder pads. They made them take everything out of their lockers to take home and launder it. Then they came in and sprayed down the lockers and the floor. They did everything they could to cut down the infection.”
Price said he believed this is the first confirmed case of meningitis in Marion County schools. He noted a few suspected cases were reported several years ago, but he does not believe any of them were ever confirmed.
North Marion’s entire week of football practice was affected by sicknesses to several players, including the flu, but the meningitis case was the most severe.
“We’ve been battling it all week,” White said. “We’ve had three or four kids miss every day. It just rotates to different people.
“So that kind of threw us out of kilter (Thursday), and that affects kids, especially at this age to tell them one of their teammates has meningitis.”
Reporter Katie Wilson contributed to this story.
E-mail Andrew Manzo at dmanzo@timeswv.com.