Warnings issued after suspected meningitis death of SDSU student

San Diego State University officials are recommending antibiotic treatments for those who may have been in contact with an 18-year-old student who died Thursday after possibly contracting meningococcal meningitis.

The San Diego County coroner has not made a final determination as to cause of death.

Sara Stelzer, a first-year student from Moorpark in Ventura County, was admitted to the hospital Tuesday with flu-like symptoms.

Meningitis is a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It can cause long-term damage and death.

On Friday morning, a long line of students was outside the SDSU student health center on campus waiting to talk to medical personnel.

The students most at risk, officials said, are those at the Kappa Delta sorority, as well as people who were at the same parties that Stelzer attended at the Alpha Epsilon Pi sorority and Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. She lived on campus.

“After speaking with her family, we know that Sara was a vibrant young woman who loved San Diego State, her friends and the time she spent at our university,” said Eric Rivera, vice president for student affairs.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, said that while meningitis can be deadly, “it is not spread through casual contact.”

“Therefore the risk to those who were not in close, direct contact is minimal,” she said.

Close, direct contact, officials said, is defined as kissing, sharing smoking materials, such as cigarettes or pipes, or sharing eating utensils or drinking glasses. Close living conditions, such as dormitories or military barracks, can also pose a risk.

Initial symptoms include fever, headache, lethargy and muscle stiffness or rash, officials said.

San Diego County averages about 10 meningitis cases annually, officials said. A high school student died of the disease in February.

Small-scale outbreaks have been reported in the past year at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

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