Cherry Creek Schools teacher dies of bacterial meningitis

Public at low risk

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Arapahoe County Public Health o cials held a virtual press conference April 12 to follow up on their announcement that an Eaglecrest High School teacher died over the weekend after displaying symptoms consistent with bacterial meningitis.

“We’re very concerned about this case being a case of Neisseria meningitidis, which is a speci c type of bacteria and this bacteria is very, very serious because it causes invasive disease very quickly,” said Dr. Chris Urbina, chief medical o cer for the health agency.

e Cherry Creek School District sent a letter to Eaglecrest families on April 11 informing them that Maddie Schmidt, an Integrated Learning Center teacher died over the weekend. Meningitis is in ammation around the brain and the spinal cord that can be deadly if not treated quickly, Urbina said. Eaglecrest is in the Centennial area.

People who become infected may experience symptoms such as sudden headaches, sti neck, fevers, nausea, vomiting, a sensitivity to light, general illness and occasionally a rash, Urbina added.

e germ may be transmitted by close contact, like a person coughing, he said.

“You actually have to have very close contact with this person, like, greater than eight hours,” Urbina said. e federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees. e bacteria are “not as contagious as germs that cause the common cold or the u,” according to the CDC.

He added that close contact includes sharing food or utensils with an infected person.

“It’s not spread by casual contact,” Urbina added.

“People do not catch the bacteria through casual contact or by breathing air where someone with meningococcal disease has been.” e health department is concerned that bacteria spread to Schmidt’s brain and caused severe disease.

Jennifer Ludwig, director of the health agency, said a lab-con rmed test led the department to begin an investigation.

“Our team kicked into gear working with Cherry Creek School District to identify close contacts of the individual so that we could begin our contact tracing,” Ludwig said. “It’s very important that we notify close contacts as quickly as possible because the timeframe in which to reach them, so that they can then seek medical care, is very short.”

Urbina said the health department is working to identify those cases and get them prophylaxis, which he said is a simple antibiotic. If they receive that in a very short time period, the spread of the disease can be prevented, he said.

At this point, the health risk to the general public is very low, Urbina said. He noted it is not being called an outbreak, but rather a case of meningitis.

One reporter asked the health department representatives about the death of another Eaglecrest educator, Judith Geo roy, who also died over the weekend. CPR reported Geo roy was a paraprofessional in the Integrated Learning Center, but Geo roy’s cause of death has not been con rmed.

“We are only investigating the one case — that is the only individual that we have information on at this time,” Ludwig said.

When asked whether Schmidt and Geo roy were close contacts with one another, Ludwig said, “ at is not information that we would be able to disclose at this time. It’s still an open investigation, and we are only investigating the one right now.”

If more cases do come up, the health department will continue to recommend treatment, Urbina said. He said there are two vaccines associated with preventing this type of meningitis, which he said are available on the health department’s website.

“If you’re concerned about protecting yourself against Neisseria meningitidis in general, then I would encourage you to get these vaccines,” he said.

Ludwig said the health department wanted to give its sympathy regarding the deaths at Eaglecrest High School.

“Our hearts go out to the families, to the school community and to the school district. is is a very dicult time for the whole community,” Ludwig said. “We are thinking of you all.”