SALEM, Ohio — The shot that Cassandra Lieder received Friday should protect her and thousands of others from a meningitis-related outbreak that has killed two teens and sickened a third in northeast Ohio in the past two weeks.

        Cassandra, 15, was one of about 5,800 high school students and staff who rolled up their sleeves and put on brave faces as they were inoculated against a deadly bacteria.

        The outbreak has spread fear and confusion throughout this blue-collar area 40 miles southeast of Cleveland, canceling classes and graduations.

        Up and down Ohio's rural U.S. 62, students and parents made a procession through makeshift inoculation centers set up at area schools Friday. State health officials recommended the shots to stave off the outbreak.

        But they didn't ease all fears.

        “I think they're giving us all the disease,” Cassandra said after she was inoculated at a makeshift clinic set up at Salem High School. “Somebody's going to end up getting it.”

        About four dozen students and parents lined up early Friday outside the school for the state's first mass inoculation against the outbreak. The state is paying for the $55-per-dose vaccine. Surrounding counties donated nurses and needles.

        The vaccine is up to 90 percent effective against four strains of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, including the one involved in the outbreak, said Dr. Nancy Rosenstein of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

        By 2 p.m., about 2,000 people had received the shots at all four high schools where the inoculations took place. Students from six high schools received the injections.

        Carey Rogers, 17, didn't mind the shot's sting because he said it offset his fear of contracting the disease.

        “It's basically a relief to get the shot,” he said after getting vaccinated at Salem. “A couple of my friends had a couple of parties, but my mom wouldn't let me go to their house. You got to think about it with everything you do.”

        The third person infected, Christin VanCamp, a senior at Marlington High School, started showing signs of the disease after she paid her respects to Jonathan Stauffer, a 15-year-old who died May 26 of meningococcemia, a blood infection caused by the bacteria. The bacteria also causes meningitis, a disease of the brain.

        The bacteria killed Jonathan's classmate, Kelly Coblentz, 15, two days later.

        Both students who died attended Beloit West Branch High School, but their families said they weren't friends and have disputed reports that the two may have passed the infection by sharing a water bottle at a picnic.

        The bacteria are spread through saliva, but health officials aren't sure how the three teen-agers were infected or how many people the bacteria might have reached.

        The condition of 18-year-old Ms. VanCamp, who had been in a coma, was upgraded to satisfactory Friday at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron.

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