ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 1996 TAG: 9609240082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
State health officials are searching for a carrier who may have infected two toddlers attending the same preschool with a germ that can cause bacterial meningitis. One of the children died.
``It's the first time that someone has tried to locate a carrier in my 40 years'' of medicine, said Dr. James Walker of the Harrisonburg branch of the Virginia Department of Health.
The disease left one child dead Saturday and another hospitalized. The two boys were diagnosed with the infection over the weekend, but no new cases have been reported, officials said Monday.
Both children attended Minnieland Child Development Center in Harrisonburg.
Bryce Madison Tolson, son of Troy and Barbara Tolson, died of bacterial meningitis Saturday on his second birthday at John Randolph Hospital in Hopewell.
Barbara Tolson said she had taken her son to a doctor in Harrisonburg on Thursday after he came down with a fever. ``The pediatrician said it was a viral infection,'' she said. ``They said there has been a lot of that going around.''
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB