Recently at the University of California Santa Barbara, there has been an outbreak of meningitis. There have been four cases at UC Santa Barbara, but also eight cases of the same unique strain at Princeton University. The article is titled "Meningitis Outbreak at UC Santa Barbara" and was written by Sydney Lupkin from ABC News, on December 3rd. A few kids began getting sick about 3 weeks ago. One victim had to have both of his legs amputated. The strain of meningitis is called meningococcal type B. In the article, it states that "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they are not connected because the diseases do not have the same "fingerprint." This statement shows that the two outbreaks are not related, because they did not originate from the same place. This is important to know when studying how to prevent further spread of meningitis.
When I first read this article it scared me a little, since I'm going to college next year, and this rare strain of meningitis is being found currently in colleges. There is no vaccine for this strain. From what I know from class, not having a vaccine can make the affected and the people around them very nervous and afraid. One student that knew one of the affected people said, "It's just kind of scary because there is a constant fear." Constant fear is something we know at lot about fro studying smallpox and the black plague for example.
The only time I have experienced somewhat of this fear is when swine flu occurred a few years ago. Everyone was always talking about it, and always afraid it would affect people near us. There was a vaccine for this strain of course, but it is still a scary situation when a new strain of a virus comes around.
I thought this article was very informative about the situation at UC Santa Barbara and across the country at Princeton. I find it ironic that this is happening in two places so different from each other, with no relationship between them. Now I'm left wondering how the spread actually did begin, and waiting to see if this situation gets better, since it is something that is having a huge impact on the lives of the students and families.
ReplyDeleteThis blog entry, above all others caught my eyes. I appreciated your sense of urgency and understanding of the severity of this disease. As I too am entering college next year, this will certainly be a concern in the back of my head. Furthermore, I find it interesting that this particular strain has no vaccine while others do. This shows that this disease is both current and evolving. Well done!
Hannah excellent job in making your article concise and interesting. Just like Rachel said it truly caught my eye when scrolling through the blog. I actually have a family friend who's young infant daughter contracted menigitis as a baby and almost died. Fortunately she did not die but is legally blind, with some of her vision now returning at age four, and she is also paralyzed on the left side of her body. I watched a perfectly healthy baby's world be flipped upside down by this disease and change her life forever. It is a scary disease and one we need to keep a close eye on.
ReplyDeleteNice job with your reaction Hannah. I agree, it makes me a little nervous as well to be going to college next year when these outbreaks of meningitis are occurring. I like that the article you chose was about the same topic as mine, as yours clears up the matter of whether or not the two outbreaks were related, whereas mine just said they were the same strain. It's interesting to compare the two articles and see what information about diseases different news stations are privy to. It is slightly more disconcerting that they are two separate outbreaks, since it brings up the possibility that a third unrelated outbreak could pop up as well.
ReplyDeleteThis article is truly relatable to our class compared to some of the other blog posts. Even though I'm still a junior, college is not far away. In addition, it is especially frightening that there is no vaccine for this. This just goes to show that students have to be careful when they go off to college because of the close living conditions we will have to face. Good job Hannah on picking an intriguing topic!
ReplyDelete