Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402040007
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
No other cases were identified, but 35 people were being treated with antibiotics as a precaution.
Brian Shaw, W&L's director of communications, said Duvall, 21, was being treated with antibiotics and intravenous fluids and being carefully monitored.
Shaw said that 20 of the other people being treated are members of or associated with the men's basketball team.
"`Right now, we're just evaluating students as they come through the doors [of the health center]. If no more cases are discovered, this will be treated as an isolated incident," he said. "What's frightening about this is the symptoms are so like the flu . . . and it happens pretty quickly."
The symptoms include a rash, cough, sore throat, muscle and joint aches, fever, cold chills and headache.
On the W&L campus, officials were busy spreading word of Duvall's condition and encouraging those in close contact with him to go immediately to the student health center for evaluation.
Shaw said the university's main goal was to communicate with those at risk as quickly and broadly as possible. On Thursday, W&L posted a health notice and used university voice mail and radio and television stations to inform people of the symptoms of a meningococcal infection, which may cause meningitis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.
Shaw said Duvall, a native of Bethesda, Md., became sick Tuesday with what he thought was the flu. On Wednesday, Duvall did not feel better and decided not to make a road trip that night to Norfolk, where the Generals were scheduled to meet Virginia Wesleyan in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game.
"He went to the infirmary and they sent him to the emergency room [at Stonewall Jackson Hospital]. He went downhill pretty quickly from there," Shaw said.
Doctors called Virginia Wesleyan officials after the diagnosis had been made, the game was canceled and the W&L team returned to Lexington for evaluation. The game has been tentatively rescheduled for Feb. 14.
The Generals are supposed to play Eastern Mennonite at home on Saturday. Shaw said no decision had been made on whether that game would be played.
Jane Horton, university physician, explained that the meningococcal infection can spread to anyone who has close, personal contact with a contagious person. She defined that as "extended direct contact of more than four hours over the past five to seven days."
Classmates or those who have had casual contact with Duvall are not considered to be at high risk of the infection, which is transmitted through coughing, sneezing and sharing food and drink.
In the notice distributed by the university, health officials said it was difficult to determine the origin or spreading points of the infection, and that "anyone who thinks that he or she may have symptoms associated with a meningococcal infection should go immediately to the student health center."
by CNB