Click to watch video

For the third time this year bacterial meningitis has struck a college campus in Texas.

KHOU - TV

Two Prairie View Texas A&M students were hospitalized in February.

Less than a week later meningitis put a Baylor student into the intensive care unit.

And now TSU is mourning a student who died last week from the infectious disease and praying for another who’s been hospitalized.

“What’s unusual at TSU is that there were two cases with a one week period of time and that suggests there might be an outbreak,” said Dr. Robert Atmar at the Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Atmar is an infectious disease specialist.

He says meningococcal meningitis is rare.

Fewer than 3,000 cases are diagnosed in the lab nationwide each year.

Common symptoms include severe headache, fever and a stiff neck.

Experts say patients are sometimes confused and may get a rash.

Young adults are at an increased risk because they tend to live in close contact and might be more likely to eat or drink after each other.

Anyone in contact with the students diagnosed with meningitis should take a preventive dose of antibiotics as recommended.

Dr. Atmar says it’s an infection where people can get very sick very quickly.

Once meningitis is diagnosed, early treatment can increase a students chance of survival.