VANCOUVER — Cowlitz County health officials say an infant with bacterial meningitis has died in a Portland hospital.
Cowlitz County health officer Dr. Alan Melnick told the Longview Daily News that the baby developed a fever this past week and was taken to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, where she died.
The type of meningitis that the infant had is not contagious, Melnick said, adding that only people who had contact with the child’s bodily fluids are vulnerable to infection. The child was not in day care. Exposed family members were notified and given antibiotics.
Melnick declined to release details of the case, citing privacy.
Bacterial meningitis is a form of meningococcal meningitis, which infects the lining of the brain and spinal cord.
