And we're not supposed to get excited.

        This is a marketing ploy, an advertisement that ran in the Enquirer and other papers this week to attract people to a research study of a meningitis vaccine.

        Meningitis, an infection of the brain and spinal cord coverings, is a serious illness infecting about 2,600 Americans a year, killing 10 to 15 percent. Meningitis can result from a bacterial or viral infection.

        The ad, by Radiant Research, a national company with a local lab, refers to bacterial meningitis. Radiant is seeking about 100 healthy adults, ages 18-55, to test a vaccine containing dead bacteria. (It can't cause meningitis.)

        Radiant's ad is technically correct, health officials say, but it also exaggerates.

        A person can be exposed to meningitis from breathing air, but that air has to be very close to an infected person who also is coughing or sneezing, doctors say. The bacteria also can be spread through kissing or sharing a cigarette or a beverage.
       

No reason for alarm

        So, how likely is the average person to get meningitis from breathing?

        Not likely. Certainly not likely enough to stir up alarm, health officials say, nor to justify an alarmist ad.

        Radiant officials don't agree.

        “That's not overstating it,” spokeswoman Beth Katz says. “It may appear as alarmist, but it should be.”

        Meningitis strikes quickly, turning critical in a few hours, and it can be easily misdiagnosed as a bad case of the flu.

        Studies show a higher than normal risk for college students and military personnel, who live with large groups of other people.

        Yet few colleges make parents or students aware that a vaccine is available, says Dr. Michael Noss, Radiant's medical director in Cincinnati. The vaccine, Menomune, wears off in three to five years. Drug companies, sniffing a market, are racing to create a longer-lasting shot.

        Not everyone should get the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say. Those who should include people with weakened immune systems, military recruits or travelers to certain disease-prone countries.

        The average person's risk is low, Dr. Noss says.

        “We don't want to put anyone in the study just because they're scared. We make sure they have read the informed consent (forms), and I explain the study to them.”
       

Panic spreads quickly

        But fear is easy to stir up.

        Consider last June, when two Alliance, Ohio, teens died from a meningitis-related blood infection and a third became ill. Crowds of 37,000 deluged the town's only hospital, demanding antibiotics.

        Doctors complied, although most people had had no contact with the infected children. Mass antibiotic use carries its own risks: That disease-causing bacteria can develop resistance to drugs.

        Last March a Barberton, Ohio, youth contracted meningitis. More than 100 parents packed a meeting, and the next day 176 students stayed away from school. Health officials had a tough task keeping the lid on calm and on the antibiotics.

        Meningitis is worthy of community caution.

        Drug companies and researchers are right to seek a vaccination. And we should be on the look out for symptoms: high fever, stiff neck, a headache and rash.

        But an advertisement shouldn't muddy the mix, by overstating the facts and feeding fear.

        Call Denise Smith Amos at 768-8395, or e-mail damos@enquirer.com.

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