In early February, officials at Santa Clara University in California, a small faith-based private school with about 9,000 students, had to combat an outbreak of meningitis and the panic surrounding it. Amidst adversity, the university responded well, providing lessons for campuses that could encounter such a situation in the future, according to The Washington Post.
Here are five things to know about SCU's meningitis outbreak and the university's response.
1. Adverse conditions: University health officials were notified of a suspected meningitis case in a student Jan. 31. In the following days, panic ensued — students poured into the emergency room frightened by potential symptoms and misinformation spread through social media. Distress was heightened because the Super Bowl was being hosted in Santa Clara in just a few days, with a pre-game event for more than 10,000 people planned on campus. By Feb. 2, two more cases of bacterial meningitis had been discovered and dozens more patients awaited the results of blood work and spinal taps.
2. Response part one: County health officials worked with the college to detect similarities in the hundreds of students reporting symptoms and distribute antibiotics to students who may have come into close contact with an infected student. On Feb. 2, with news of two additional cases, officials knew they'd need a mass vaccination clinic.
3. Response part two: Feb. 3, Chris Shay, the university's assistant vice president of operations, thought the site for the vaccination clinic should be the basketball stadium. The university quickly added Wi-Fi availability to the arena for students who would have to endure long wait times. Officials scrambled together volunteers and obtained the vaccine from the state for free, with the help of federal emergency funds. By Feb. 4, the university opened the doors to the arena-sized vaccination clinic.
4. Students: Before the doors to the clinic opened, a line of hundreds had already formed. Nearly 1,500 doses of the vaccine were administered before 9 p.m. on the first day. All total, more than 4,923 students received vaccinations against meningococcal meningitis, serogroup B. By Feb. 6, all three infected students were recovering.
5. Super Bowl: On Feb. 7, Peyton Manning played his last game and the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl. "I think everyone slept right through the game," Mr. Shay told the Post. "The world was watching Santa Clara. But Santa Clara was sleeping."
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