Military recruit died of meningitis shortly after being vaccinated

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Military recruit died of meningitis shortly after being vaccinated

 

 

> New military recruit died of meningitis shortly after being vaccinated

> for it. Sounds very familiar!

>

>

http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/ibsys/20021224/lo_kgtv/143256

9

>

> Officials: Recruit Did Not Die Of Strep A

> Tue Dec 24, 1:56 PM ET Add Local - KGTV TheSanDiegoChannel.com to My

 

>

>

> A Marine recruit who died Dec. 15 had an overwhelming meningococcal

> bacteria infection that was different from the streptococcus A that

> infected 185 other recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, it was

> reported Tuesday.

>

> No other recruits at the MCRD have shown symptoms or have been diagnosed

> with a meningococcal infection, Capt. John Malone, medical services

> director at Naval Medical Center San Diego, told the San Diego

Union-Tribune.

>

>

> It was purely chance that the two separate bacterial infections,

> meningococcal and step A, hit the recruit population at the same time,

> Malone said.

>

>

> Other members of Pvt. Miguel Zavala's platoon received a special oral

> antibiotic the day he died that should safeguard them against the

bacteria,

> Malone said.

>

>

> Doctors did not give the antibiotic, called levofloxacin, to all 4,500

> recruits and depot staff because no one else showed symptoms of the

rapidly

> moving infection that killed Zavala, Malone said.

>

>

> Recruits in other platoons and the public are not at risk because the

> bacteria is only spread to others in the same living area, Malone said.

>

>

> " You have to be in the same household, " Malone told the Union-Tribune.

" You

> don't get it by just walking across the parade ground. "

>

>

> All recruits entering MCRD are vaccinated against the meningococcal

> bacteria, but the vaccine is not always effective, Malone said.

>

>

> One recruit remains in critical condition from the step A-related

pneumonia

> outbreak that struck the depot.

>

>

> More than 126 people were hospitalized with pneumonia, though not all were

> related to strep A.