Maine girl contracts bacterial meningitis

SCARBOROUGH – A 5-year-old girl contracted bacterial meningitis, and her family and seven others are being treated with antibiotics as a precaution, health officials said.

The child, a pupil at Eight Corners Primary School in Scarborough, is doing well and responding to treatment, officials said.

Six to 12 Mainers get this form of meningitis every winter, and there’s no reason for people to be overly concerned, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Augusta.

But the condition can be dangerous if untreated. Danielle Thompson, 21, a Bangor woman who was a student at the University of New Hampshire, died earlier this month from bacterial meningitis.

People should call a doctor if they have symptoms such as high fever, stiff neck, headache, rash or nausea and vomiting, Mills said.