THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030469
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Meningitis is hitting Hampton Roads with unusual force this summer, but there's no reason to panic.
The outbreak is not the same illness that killed a young Hampton Roads athlete earlier this year.
This is viral, not bacterial, meningitis. And while it has sent some residents to the hospital, it hasn't killed anyone and is not likely to kill anyone.
Local health officials have been monitoring an increase in cases in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. So far, at least 78 people have come down with the mild, flulike illness in Virginia Beach in the past three months. That's 23 more than the city saw for all of 1994.
The illness also sent about a dozen people to the emergency room of Chesapeake General Hospital from April to the end of July, when the outbreak peaked. Health officials there still are getting reports of a few cases a week - some of them from Virginia Beach residents who seek care in Chesapeake, said Tania McCartney, clinic nursing supervisor for the city's health department.
It's not a serious outbreak from a public health standpoint, although it's unpleasant for the people who get it.
``Adults . . . are going to be too sick to work,'' said Betty Rouse, head epidemiologist atthe state health department's Hampton Roads office.
Now the bug appears to be moving into Portsmouth, Norfolk and Williamsburg.
``That's what happens with viruses. They kind of make the rounds,'' Rouse said.
Viruses move through communities all the time, and summer is prime time for viral meningitis. However, health officials can't say why this year is worse than previous years. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the cases - they're not clustered in a particular area or among an age group.
Health officials in Richmond are still running tests to identify the strain of the virus. There might even be more than one involved.
There is no vaccine and no good way to prevent the illness, other than the normal health precautions of frequent hand-washing and covering your mouth when you sneeze.
Symptoms include a stiff neck, bad headaches, low fever and vomiting.
If you think you've got it, call your doctor, said Dr. Suzanne Dandoy, health director for Virginia Beach.
``It doesn't require that they dash to the emergency room,'' she said.
And if you do call, don't pester your doctor for antibiotics. Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses.
Most people with viral meningitis recover on their own.
The illness has no connection to meningococcal disease, a deadly bacterial infection that struck several young people and killed one teenager in Hampton Roads earlier this year. Some people might confuse the virus with the bacteria because meningococcal disease also can cause meningitis.
The word ``meningitis'' doesn't describe a particular disease. Meningitis is a condition - an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the brain - caused by many diseases. by CNB