By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A 20-year-old first-year student at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis died yesterday evening after becoming ill last week with possible bacterial meningitis, the academy said.

The student, who was not identified immediately, was taken Wednesday to the Baltimore Washington Medical Center after "feeling very ill," according to an academy news release. He was transferred Friday to the University of Maryland Medical Center, where he died. The academy said that a firm diagnosis of his illness was not yet available.

"Medical test results which would determine the cause of his illness and death are still pending," the academy said.

However, 44 people have been provided with antibiotics that are effective in stopping bacterial meningitis, which is spread through close person-to-person contact, the academy said. They include midshipmen, staff and emergency personnel. The academy said the antibiotics are a precaution.

Bacterial meningitis, an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord, produces symptoms that include high fever, headache and stiff neck.

Over a 10-year period starting in 1995, about 330 people in Maryland were hospitalized with bacterial meningitis, and about 10 percent died. At least two people from this area have died of the disease in recent months. One of them was a seventh-grader from Prince George's County, who died Oct. 3.