ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
University of Virginia students who came down with meningitis could have caught the infection from a round of drinks, the school's director of student health said.
Two of three students infected this school year consumed alcohol prior to becoming sick, Dr. James Turner said.
Meanwhile, a study reported today in the American Journal of Epidemiology notes a link between bar visits and meningococcal disease during a fatal outbreak at the University of Illinois in 1991 and 1992.
Researchers said the study does not link drinking alcohol and contracting the meningococcus bacteria, which can cause a bloodstream infection or spinal meningitis, a central nervous system infection. Both can be fatal; a student at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington died in January of spinal meningitis.
``When I talk to people across the country who are involved in college health, it is remarkable how common the scenario is that the student has been in a drinking situation prior to becoming ill'' with meningitis, Turner said.
Turner said he did an informal survey over the Internet a month ago and heard from at least eight major universities that had an outbreak in the past two years.
``Every one of them was associated with binge drinking or large alcoholic parties,'' he said. ``There seems to be an association, but the cause is uncertain.''
A UVa student entered an Atlanta hospital March 15 with spinal meningitis. His condition was improving last week, Turner said, and a recovery is expected.
Two other UVa students were hospitalized previously for problems stemming from the meningococcus bacteria. Both of them had been drinking around the time they became sick, said Turner.
The bacteria that causes meningitis is spread through oral and nasal secretions. Intoxicated people in a bar are less attentive and might be more likely to share a glass or cigarette, Turner said.
Alcohol impairs the immune system, he added, and could make people more vulnerable to meningococcus, which many people can carry without symptoms.
The University of Illinois study found that a bacterial outbreak that killed three Illinois students might have spread among patrons of a crowded bar near campus.
Two of the bar's 22 employees were found to be carriers of the same bacterial strain that killed the students, who had patronized the tavern in the weeks before their deaths. Five of six other students who became ill with the blood infection but survived had visited the same bar.
University of Illinois epidemiologist Peter Imrey, who conducted the study, cautioned that the report does not lead to any recommendations about how to avoid the bug.
``These are just early educated guesses,'' Imrey said. The study did not include information on whether the ill students consumed alcohol, he said.
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