Two more Long Island students have viral meningitis

Two more Long island students have viral meningitis, including a second case at a Greenlawn high school, the school districts said.

A division avenue high school student has viral meningitis, the levittown school district said on its Web site Friday, and the sibling of a harborfields high school student with the infection also has the illness.

The new cases bring the total number of long island infection cases made public last week to four. Harborfields district officials told parents Wednesday about a student diagnosed with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, the bacterial infection known as MRSA.

The Levittown district found out about the student with meningitis Friday, according to its Web site. "The student is doing well and will be returning to school on Monday," a statement on the Web site said.

The district said custodians worked late Friday to disinfect the school.

The Harborfields district, in Greenlawn, said yesterday the sibling of the student earlier diagnosed with viral meningitis was hospitalized.

The student, a junior whose name was not made public, was brought to the hospital yesterday at 3 a.m. and remains there, a district spokesman said. He added that the student is "doing fine."

Families were told about the infection yesterday morning via an automated recording from Diana todaro, Harborfields' assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

The district would not give the age or sex of the newly infected sibling, citing privacy policies.

"That student is undergoing the same protocol as the sibling," spokesman michael conte said. The protocol includes close medical observation, he said.

The sibling case is the school's third serious infection to be publicized in a week. school officials notified parents Wednesday that a junior had contracted viral meningitis.

Parents found out about the mrsa infection, which was in a sophomore football player, on Thursday.

The two students diagnosed earlier are also doing well, Conte said.

The Greenlawn school will again be scrubbed down, just as it was last week, Conte said. Custodial staff will disinfect lockers, athletic equipment and other sites, like handrails and fountains.

"They're going to clean the school yet again, just as another precaution," Conte said.

The custodial staff will again use a cleaner called Virex.

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Sunday, September 21, 2008 |

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