Several Carbon County District #2 schools closed Thursday for cleaning following a reported case of meningitis.
Kim Deti with the Wyoming Department of Health said lab testing is underway to confirm the student contracted meningitis and which kind. Results can take several days.
"When that's confirmed in a patient what we typically recommend is preventative treatment [for those] in close contact with the person who was ill," said Deti.
She said not all forms of the disease pose a threat to public health, but individuals who have been exposed to bacterial meningitis are usually treated with antibiotics.
"It's rare for our department to recommend school closure in response to an illness, but we also recognize that there can be more than one factor at play there and that's a school decision to make," said Deti. "We would also tell you that school cleaning is a good thing in general. This time of year there's lots of germs going around."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, symptoms include nausea, headache, stiffness and sensitivity to light. Deti said one of the best precautions people can take is to get vaccinated. Between 2005 and 2015 Wyoming saw 21 cases of bacterial meningitis.
