Officials: No indication of meningitis outbreak

A look at cases of the disease over the past 10 years among people in the 10-19 age group found 32 cases for the first three months of this year. In previous years, the total for that period has ranged from a low of 16 cases to a high of 40, Rosenberg said.

What has made this year different is that there have been four reported clusters in high schools in the Northern California towns of Truckee, Folsom, Santa Rosa and Livermore. Three teen-agers died of the disease, two in Folsom and one in Livermore.

Officials have determined three different strains of bacteria were at work in the first three clusters; they are still determining what strain of bacteria caused the Livermore cases.

Additionally, there have been three other isolated fatalities, two 2-year-olds, one in San Jose and another in El Sobrante, a San Francisco suburb, and the 9-year-old Berkeley girl who died this week.

Meningococcal disease is caused by bacteria. It's most common forms are as meningitis, which infects the fluid and covering of the spinal cord and meningococcal disease, which infects the bloodstream. Typical symptoms include a sudden fever combined with a headache and a stiff neck, often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. A purplish rash may develop.

The disease is not highly contagious and the bacteria do not live long outside the body; it is spread through direct contact with the nose or throat discharges of an infected person. No effective vaccine is currently available, but the disease can be treated by antibiotics.

Although risk of contracting meningitis is low, the severity of the disease and the rapidity with which it develops make it especially scary for parents.