Six Dana Road Elementary School students should be taking antibiotics on advice of a state health official after the death of one of their classmates from bacterial meningitis.

Vshanti Washington, 6, died Sunday morning at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children at University Medical Center in Jackson, where she’d been admitted Friday with the fast-moving infection.

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“The main thing is we want the community to know the school has handled this wonderfully,” said Dr. Mary G. Armstrong, district health officer for the state Department of Health. “The children are safe at the school.”

Later Armstrong visited the Dana Road campus and with class rolls, seating charts and other information developed by school Superintendent Dr. James Price and identified students recommended for precautionary treatment with the antibiotic Rifampin.

Officials met with the six families Tuesday afternoon, Price said. Those who chose to participate were given the drug and started on a course of treatment. Price did not know how many elected to take the medicine, and that Vshanti’s teacher would decide privately with her own physician about a possible course of treatment.

The other 15 students in the class and the teacher’s assistant, as well as other students in the school had not been in close enough contact with Vshanti to require treatment, Armstrong determined.

Dana Road Elementary families not contacted by health department officials had no risk from exposure to the bacteria, Armstrong said. Anyone with a concern, however, should take normal precautions and consult a doctor, she said.

Attendance at Dana Road, one of the district’s larger elementaries, was apparently not affected. There were 67 absences Friday, the day Vshanti became ill, 57 on Monday, the day after she died, and 63 on Tuesday, after news of her fatal illness spread, Price said.

Vshanti was kept home from school Friday with “sniffles” and a low-grade fever, her aunt said. She was taken to the doctor, where she suffered a seizure and was rushed to River Region Medical Center. From there, she was airlifted to Batson.

Diane Gawronski, vice president of marketing and business development at River Region, said hospital staff had followed infectious control standards, and no patients had been exposed to the bacteria. Some staff received precautionary antibiotic treatment, she said.

Meningitis is an infection of the covering of the brain. It is contagious, but not spread through casual contact. Breathing the same air as someone who is infected should not increase risk of infection. It is spread through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions, such as by coughing, sneezing and kissing.

Symptoms include high fever, nausea and vomiting, severe headache, stiff neck and discomfort with bright lights. Any person, child or adult with those indicators should seek immediate medical attention.

With some of the symptoms of meningitis being similar to flu and swine flu, which has concerned parents in the weeks since school started Aug. 4, Armstrong tried to reassure families. “If a child begins to run a high fever, act confused or show other uncommon signs, by all means taken your child to the doctor for an examination,” she said. “Otherwise there is no need for concern.”

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com