VALDOSTA — South Georgia Medical Center is investigating a second case of what is believed to be meningococcal meningitis.

At the same time, multiple sources have blamed meningococcal meningitis for the death of an 11-month-old infant. When asked if this infant is the second case, an SGMC spokesperson said that she could neither confirm nor deny the cause of death of any patient due to the hospital’s obligations under HIPAA, a federal privacy rule.

Dr. Willy Saurina, SGMC-based infectious disease specialist, reported Friday that a patient in his or her 20s hospitalized last week with meningococcal meningitis responded well to antibiotic treatment and has been discharged from the hospital. He or she is making a full recovery, according to a press release from SGMC.

However, Saurina is working another case where the confirmation work-up for the meningococcal meningitis strain is pending.

Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson said that he handled a meningitis patient Sunday, March 8, but could not release any further information because the deceased was a minor.

South Health District Public Information Officer Courtney Sheeley said that the health department has not identified any links in the two cases. They are believed to be unrelated at this time.

Caused by a bacteria, meningococcal disease is a serious and potentially fatal illness that can strike at any time. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis, an infection of fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord, in children between the ages of 2 and 18 years and sepsis, an infection of the blood.

It can be contracted by being in close contact with an infected person or the one in three people who carry the bacteria inside their nose and mouth but never become sick themselves.

Of the 3,000 people infected with meningococcal bacteria each year, 10 to 15 percent die, even with treatment with antibiotics. Meningococcal disease can kill an otherwise healthy young person in 48 hours or less. Another 11 to 19 percent of those who live lose their arms, legs, fingers or toes; have problems with their nervous system; suffer hearing loss, seizures, strokes, emotional or psychological problems or kidney damage; or become mentally retarded due to severe swelling around the brain and spinal cord and blood poisoning.

Because preadolescents are at increased risk of developing meningococcal disease, the CDC recently revised its vaccination guidelines to include preteen boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 12. The updating was based on recommendations issued in 2005 by the government agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Vaccination against meningococcal disease, which affects about 3,000 people annually in the United States, was previously only recommended for boys and girls entering high school or young adults on their way to living in a college or university dorm. But due to an increase in the frequency of cases involving middle schoolers, Dr. Kimberly Megow, a Valdosta-based pediatrician, recently shared in an issue of Your Health Matters, a monthly magazine and sister publication of The Valdosta Daily Times, that the revision was necessary.

Two different articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that a majority of the instances of meningococcal disease in the United States — up to 83 percent of cases in adolescents and young adults — could potentially be prevented by a single vaccination.

“Meningococcal (disease) is probably the scariest (disease) we face in pediatrics because it is often fatal, even when treated early and appropriately,” Megow said.

When it comes to treating meningococcal disease, the experts at FightMeningitis.com believe speed is essential. The online site states, “One of the things that makes meningococcal disease so potentially dangerous is that it comes on very quickly, often in a matter of hours. Many times it seems like the flu or another common illness. (And) because of this, many people do not get the treatment they need until the disease has gotten much worse.”

Symptoms of meningococcal disease include high fever, severe headache, stiff neck, light sensitivity, nausea and vomiting, numbness or loss of feeling, confusion, rash and seizures. While one individual might only have a few of these symptoms, another could have them all.