Preventative treatment recommended after meningitis outbreak in university

Health authorities announced that preventative treatment will be offered to the close contacts of three students who were diagnosed with meningococcal disease after a third case was recorded in less than three months in the University of the Peloponnese, western Greece, on Wednesday.

The National Organization for Public Health (EODY) said in a press release that the detection of three cases of the disease of the same serogroup (B) in an organization (school, university institution, etc.) over a three-month period constitutes an outbreak and it is recommended that chemoprophylaxis be extended to a wider circle of close contacts and that targeted vaccination be given to the close contacts of the affected cases.

The newest case, a 20-year-old student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was reportedly found by his parents at home in ill health. He was evacuated...