SHREWSBURY, Mass. (AP) – A 30-year-old man has died of bacterial meningitis in Shrewsbury.
Health Director Nancy Allen on Tuesday said the victim died in the emergency room of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester last Tuesday.
Allen says state officials are working to determine how the man got infected. He traveled to New York City once a week, and experts will study that as a possible route of exposure.
Members of his family were immunized last week.
Meningitis is an infection of the fluid of the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain. It kills about 300 people in the U.S. each year.
Bacterial meningitis can result in brain damage, hearing loss, learning disability or death. Symptoms include high fever, headache and a stiff neck, and can also include nausea, vomiting, confusion and sleepiness.
AP-ES-02-17-09 1700EST
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