Rhode Island State health officials in Rhode Island are preparing to open schools on Monday after a meningitis scare. They’ve also provided every school in the state with alcohol-based gels and dispensers.
Authorities say no new cases of meningitis have been reported after a child developed it and died a few weeks ago. That child died after first being diagnosed with mycoplasma, or “walking pneumonia.” Schools had been closed for two days as officials investigated whether there’s a connection to the latest case of meningitis and a string of cases caused by walking pneumonia.
Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) is investigating an outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Two students at Greenwood Elementary School in Warwick who had encephalitis were determined by CDC to have a Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection that was the probable cause of their illness. Subsequently, HEALTH provided prophylactic antibiotics (primarily azithromycin) to students, staff and immediate family members of Greenwood School . On January_2, the CDC classified mycoplasma as the probable cause of a case of encephalitis at Deering Middle School in West Warwick .