THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180527
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Great Bridge High School suspended football practice this week after seven players came down with viral meningitis.
Viral meningitis is usually a mild, flulike illness unrelated to the bacterial disease that killed a local high school athlete early this year.
All infected Great Bridge students are expected to recover quickly without complications.
The incident is part of a viral meningitis outbreak that has moved through Chesapeake and Virginia Beach this summer.
The team won't participate in a High School Jamboree scrimmage it was scheduled to play in this Saturday at CEL Field. School officials will try to determine today whether the team will be able to complete the 20 days of practice required by the Virginia High School League before the Wildcats' scheduled opening game Aug. 31 at Tallwood.
The Great Bridge team had been practicing for about two weeks when three students were diagnosed with the disease Sunday, said Chesapeake Health Director Dr. Nancy M. Welch.
Despite the school's measures to prevent spreading, four more players came down with the disease this week when the team - about 100 players and 10 staff - went to an overnight camp held at Fort Story in Virginia Beach.
Camp ended two days early and students returned home Wednesday morning because of the impending arrival of Hurricane Felix, said principal Bob Robinson.
On the advice of Welch, school officials decided to stop all practices until next Wednesday to prevent further transmission and allow the virus' incubation period to run its course, Robinson said.
``We have advised (students) that they should not be around each other so they will not infect each other,'' he said.
Meningitis is a condition that causes inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord.
The disease is brought on by a virus, so antibiotics are not effective at preventing or treating it, said Welch. Usually, the treatment is to ``make the person comfortable and then wait it out.''
Some Hampton Roads cities have seen an unusually large number of cases this year.
In Chesapeake, 28 people have come down with the disease since the first of the year; the city had just 11 cases in all of 1994. Virginia Beach saw 78 cases in May, June and July - 23 more than all of last year.
In March, Norfolk Academy student and star athlete D.A. Taylor died after becoming infected with meningococcal disease, a serious bacterial illness that sometimes causes meningitis.
There hasn't been a case of bacterial meningitis reported in Chesapeake since the end of the school year, Welch said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
AVOIDING THE VIRUS
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB