Are College Students At Increased Risk?
Overall, undergraduate students have lower risk than a non-student population (1.4 cases per 100,000 people per year). However, college freshmen living in dormitories have a modestly increased rate (4.6 cases per 100,000 people per year). Reasons for this increase are not fully understood, but are probably related to living in close proximity to each other. How Are Meningococcal Bacteria Spread? The bacteria are transmitted from person-to-person in secretions from the nose and throat. They are not spread by causal contact or by simply breathing the air near an infected person, but require close contact. The bacteria can live outside the body for only a few minutes; so if the germs contaminate a desk or book, they soon die and won’t infect a person who touches it later. As many as 2 in 10 people carry the bacteria in the back of the nose and throat at any given time, especially in winter. Why only a very small number of those who have the bacteria in their nose and throat develop diseas
