Paoli girl , 12, dies of bacterial meningitis

A 12-year-old Garvin County girl died today from bacterial meningitis, the state Health Department has confirmed.

Nicole Campbell died Friday morning after being hospitalized a day before. The sixth-grade student was fine earlier in the week and attended school. By mid-week, however, she missed school, said school superintendent Rick Worden.

The Garvin County Health Department was contacted Thursday and was seeking to confirm the girl's diagnosis, Worden said. Pamphlets and information about meningitis was distributed to parents and students who attended the school's spring carnival Thursday night, Worden said.

Andrew Dixon, who goes to school with the girl's older brother, said the onset of the illness was quick.

"One night she woke up shaking," he said. "They took her to a hospital in Oklahoma City."

Laurence Burnsed, director of the Health Department's Communicable Disease Division, said local authorities are working to identify anyone who was in close contact with the girl so they can receive antibiotics.

Parents of sixth-graders and fifth-grade girls at the Paoli school were notified Thursday that a student had contracted bacterial meningitis, Worden said. Parents of fifth grade girls were notified because the girls have physical education class together and may have had close contact, Worden said.

"The general public is not at risk," Burnsed said. "Casual contact does not put a person at increased risk."

Those who are at risk are family members and those who spent extended periods of time with the girl, Burnsed said.

"Many people — healthy people — can carry this bacteria in the nose and throat without any symptoms," he said.

Suspected and diagnosed cases of meningitis must be reported immediately to the Health Department, which found out Thursday about the girl's illness.

Symptoms include an intense headache, fever, vomiting and a stiff neck.

The state saw 22 cases of bacterial meningitis in 2007. Three people died. In 2008 there have been six cases and two deaths, officials said.

This is the first bacterial meningitis death during Worden's 14 years at the small school district. School officials learned of the death after a teacher went to the hospital to take the girl get well cards from her classmates, Worden said.

"It's not good. It's kind of a somber mood at this point," Worden said. "We're a small community, there are only about 130 students in the elementary school. The teachers have taken it kind of hard.

Worden said counselors will be on hand Monday to help teachers and students deal with the death. A seminar about meningitis will be held Tuesday at the school.