ALLIANCE, Ohio — Softball games, a dance recital and even final exams were canceled. Graduation went on but without the usual rounds of hugs and kisses.

        Residents armed themselves with surgical masks and disinfectant wipes as they waited Monday to find out if they had to be vaccinated because of a meningitis-related outbreak that killed two teens and made a third student seriously ill.

        “They aren't allowed to touch anything,” Melissa Gentry said of her two children as they shopped Monday at Wal-Mart. The children, ages 8 and 10, weren't in school because Marlington school district canceled classes and exams for the rest of the school year.

        A Marlington High School senior, Christin Van Camp, was diagnosed Saturday with the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis and remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition Monday.

        The bacterium causes meningitis, a disease of the brain, and meningococcemia, a blood ailment that has afflicted the Ohio students.

        The bacterium led to the deaths about a week ago of two Beloit West Branch High School students. The schools are about 15 miles apart.

        The students who died, Jonathan Stauffer, 15, and Kelly Coblentz, 16, may have shared a water bottle at a school picnic on May 25, according to West Branch Superintendent Louis Ramunno.

        Officials from the local health department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were waiting Monday for test results to see if Ms. Van Camp had the same strain of the bacteria. If so, they may have to vaccinate thousands of people, said Dr. Mark Hostettler, medical director of the Alliance Community Hospital.

        Thousands of residents in this town of 23,000 already had lined up over the weekend to get antibiotics. About 37,000 doses were given out. But the pills were intended to protect residents for one to two days; while a vaccination shot lasts three to five years.

        Syringes and vaccine were lined up to be delivered to the hospital if they decide to inoculate.

        The disease is not spread by casual contact but by saliva con tact such as drinking out of the same container or sharing a fork or spoon. Symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck, confusion, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion and possible rash.

        Nick Baird, director of the Ohio Department of Health, said officials were erring on the side of caution.

        “The antibiotic, in my view, probably was cast more broadly than it needed to be,” he said.

        There are about 3,000 cases of meningitis annually in the United States, said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the CDC. Ten percent to 15 percent die from the disease.

        The disease has sparked confusion and fear for some in Alliance, a blue-collar city that is home to Mount Union College. Some residents carried surgical masks when they got their antibiotics at hospitals in Alliance and nearby Salem.

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