Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994                   TAG: 9402030194
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ATHLETE AT W&L HAS MENINGITIS

Tyler Duvall, a junior economics major from Bethesda, Md., was diagnosed with a meningococcal infection Wednesday afternoon, and doctors immediately called Virginia Wesleyan officials advising the game be postponed, said Brian Shaw, the university's director of communication. Duvall missed a team practice Tuesday after coming down with flu-like symptoms and had already decided not to make the trip to Norfolk, Shaw said.

Duvall was in serious condition at Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington on Wednesday and was to be transferred to the University of Virginia Hospital.

The Generals were on their way back to Lexington on Wednesday night and were expected to arrive shortly after midnight. Shaw said team members and staff were to be evaluated and receive precautionary treatment before any further decisions will be made.

Shaw said university leaders will be taking all steps necessary to notify the campus community of the situation.

Doctors at the university infirmary where Duvall was diagnosed could not be reached for comment.

Meningococcal meningitis is one of several types of the disease caused by bacteria. Meningitis - an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord - also can be caused by viruses, fungi or protozoa. Symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck, rashes, vomiting, confusion and drowsiness.

Early treatment with antibiotics has greatly reduced the chances of death from bacterial meningitis. The disease can travel rapidly among people in close daily contact, but usually requires intimate, mouth-to-mouth contact to spread, health officials say. It is often preceded by minor flu-like symptoms or a sore throat.

Wednesday's diagnosis was not the first on a Virginia campus.

A Radford University student died from a blood infection caused by meningococcus bacteria in February 1992, and a female student at a private high school in Richmond died of meningitis several weeks later. Two Longwood College students were also diagnosed with the disease - the first after visiting the Radford campus around the time of Hamlett's death, and the other in March of 1992. Both women recovered.