Bacterial meningitis casts shadow over region

FORT COLLINS – The sky isn’t falling, but Northern Colorado residents are living under a shadow of potentially deadly bacterial meningitis.

Two young, healthy Colorado State University students living in Fort Collins were admitted to Poudre Valley Hospital within hours of each other on the evening of Oct. 19, both exhibiting symptoms of meningitis. One, a 19-year-old man from Parker, was treated and released within a few days. The other, a 23-year-old woman from Evans, died three hours after her admission.

It now appears the 19-year-old student contracted viral meningitis – a much more common form – and his admission to the…