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UC Davis Student Diagnosed With Bacterial Meningitis

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis student has been diagnosed with potentially deadly bacterial meningitis.

UC Davis health professionals can't say much about the student, but say they don't live on campus and they don't seem to have roommates—two things that will help track and contain the disease.

Dr. Michelle Famula, the health services executive director at the university says the infected student has been admitted to a local hospital and is doing well.

"This is not a particularly common infection, but it is something that affects young healthy people," she said.

The university notified about 100 people in close contact with the infected person about the risk and urges them to contact health services for more information.

Famula says the general student body doesn't need to worry, as folks are only at a higher risk of catching the disease if they are in close quarters with the infected individual. It's not something they would catch simply by sitting next to them for a couple of minutes.

"Bacterial meningitis has a number of different subtypes, some are more highly communicable than others, the ones we most commonly see are not that that readily communicated person to person," she said.

The university recommends a meningitis vaccination to first-year students, but it's not required.

The last UC Davis meningitis case was in 2004.

Sacramento Kings star DeMarcus Cousins was sidelined with the viral form of meningitis, which the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention says is often less severe than the bacterial form.

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