MOUNT VERNON — A television report on Tuesday broke the news that two Olentangy students had “serious illnesses,” causing alarm in Mount Vernon because of this week’s football games between Mount Vernon and Olentangy Orange High School.
However, the two football players attend Olentangy High School, not Olentangy Orange High School. No cases of either illness has been reported at Olentany Orange.
One of the students contracted mumps, the other aseptic (viral) meningitis. Since mumps and meningitis are both very contagious, and the students infected are football players, questions initially arose concerning the safety of the Yellow Jacket football squads.
Amanda Morris, director of communications for Olentangy Local Schools, said no students at Olentangy Orange should be infected by the students from Olentangy High School, unless by some chance the two students infected had some sort of sharing of water bottles or something like that.
“They would have to be in close personal contact, or share personal items like utensils,” said Morris. “Since they don’t go to school with them, that would be a little challenging.”
According to a press release from the Delaware General Health District, mumps is spread through saliva and respiratory droplets. The release stated a sign a child might have mumps would be the swelling of the cheeks or jaws, or swelling in the saliva glands near the back of the jaw.
Janet Stutzman, school nurse for Mount Vernon High School, said a case of mumps is rare in high school students.
“They have been vaccinated twice for mumps by the time they reach high school,” said Stutzman, adding that students who have been given the MMR (measles, mumps and rhubela) vaccine should have a lifetime immunity to mumps.
The Delaware health district’s release stated that viral meningitis is an irritation of the covering of the brain and spinal chord. Symptoms that a child has meningitis include fever, headache, lack of appetite, stomach pain, stiff neck, nausea and vomiting.
According to Stutzman, viral meningitis is a much more manageable form of the illness. Bacterial meningitis is a very deadly form of the illness, she said and is much harder to overcome than the viral form.
There have been no cases of either illness reported at Mount Vernon High School. An athletic event against Olentangy’s neighboring school should not cause any extra concern for parents regarding their children’s health, but as Steve Short, superintendent of Mount Vernon City Schools, points out, parents should always be a little concerned about health issues.
“Your opportunities to pass along germs increase when you are with a group of people for a long period of time,” said Short. “So you try to keep the locker rooms as clean as possible and you try to make sure your kids don’t drink out of the same water bottle.”
Stutzman also said saliva is the way the two diseases are spread. Avoiding someone else’s saliva by not sharing drinks or eating utensils is the best way to stay illness-free.
But if some sort of unusual and contagious disease did spread to Mount Vernon High School, the school would take measures to keep the students as safe and healthy as possible.
“If we feel that any time the kids aren’t safe, or can’t be safe, and we need to do some things, we are willing to do that,” said Short.
Because the illness has not been reported in Olentangy Orange High School, the Yellow Jacket football players are at no greater risk of getting either illness than they would be in any other situation.
“It would be easier for [the athlete] to spread it on his own team, because of the water bottles, than to our team,” said Stutzman. “It could happen, but it wouldn’t be very likely.”
