Massapequa High student diagnosed with meningitis

A Massapequa High School student has been diagnosed with meningitis, the district's schools superintendent said in a letter to parents posted on its website Friday.

"Nassau County Department of Health notified me that they received a report that a student at the main campus of Massapequa High School has been diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis," Superintendent Charles V. Sulc said in the letter. The letter urged anyone who shared food, drink, beverage container or eating utensils or had similar exposure to the individual - who was not identified in the letter - 10 days before May 19 to contact a physician immediately for treatment.

The letter notes meningococcal disease is a severe bacterial infection of the bloodstream spread by close contact with nose or throat discharges of an infected person.

In January 2008, a Massapequa High School student, Michael Gruber, 17, died of the same type of disease. He was one of two people who died within 24 hours of each other, though preliminary testing at the time indicated that the bacterial strains involved in the cases of Gruber and LeeAnne Burke, 27, of Bellerose, Queens, a guidance counselor at St. Francis Preparatory School, differed.