My daughter-in-law called me this morning from the hospital. I was so surprised. You see, she just lost a baby after six weeks of pregnancy. After a couple of days she started with migraine headaches that just wouldn’t go away. Her doctor said it was caused by stress. This morning she said the hospital says it’s meningitis. Still trying to find out whether it’s viral or bacterial. She is 26 years old. Should I be really, really worried?

Kathy Huddleson responds:

I recommend that you contact your daughter-in-law’s medical provider or your own medical provider to get answers to your questions. We lost our 21-year-old daughter to meningococcal disease, so I am always very concerned when I hear that someone has been diagnosed with meningitis, whether viral or bacterial. It is most important that you also speak to your health care provider as quickly as possible if you were in close contact with your daughter-in-law recently. When our daughter died, close friends and family members who had been in contact with her within a few days of her death were given antibiotics to help prevent contracting the disease.

There is a vaccine available for people ages 2 through 55 that helps to prevent four of the five major strains of bacterial meningitis. The CDC recommends meningococcal vaccination for all adolescents ages 11 through 18 and college freshman living in dormitories. If we would have known about the disease and that there was a vaccine, our daughter would have been vaccinated and she might not have died. Please check the NMA website about more information regarding the vaccine and the symptoms and preventative measures.