A child living at a juvenile facility for kids with behavioral issues has died from suspected meningitis. A second person at the same facility had to be hospitalized with similar symptoms.
The facility is called Hallmark Youthcare in Goochland. Last week, a minor between 11 and 17 years old became ill, showing signs of meningitis.
Meningitis is a serious disease that could cause the brain and spinal cord to swell. Within days of the illness, the first patient was dead. Health officials told 8news that a second kid at the facility also started showing the symptoms. That child was treated and released from the hospital.
“At the point we were notified of this particular case, the first individual had already passed and our connection to this issue and it becoming a larger health matter was because we had a second ill individual that was connected in time and place to one facility,” says Dr. Parham Jaberi, the director for the Chesterfield Health District; however, Jaberi was speaking on behalf of the Chickahominy Health District where the facility is located.
As a precaution, the health department started giving antibiotics to everyone who came in contact with the kids.
Dr. Jaberi says the general public shouldn’t be alarmed because the disease does not spread easily.
“This is not a disease that can be transferred through the subways, through the mall, through even someone riding the bus together. It really requires close contact with each other,” says Dr. Jaberi.
Even though administrators at this facility didn’t want to speak with 8News, Dr. Jaberi says the parents and guardians of the kids staying at the facility have been notified. The facility is still in operation.
“We are working with all the partners to do that trace back, in terms of what could be done differently or how things could have been improved, that’s really up to the facility,” says Jaberi.
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