UO student’s death most likely from meningitis

A University of Oregon student who died on Friday most likely succumbed to bacterial meningitis, according to Lane County Public Health.

“We don’t know yet,” said Pam Stuver, a nursing supervisor at the agency, referring to the death of Lillian Pagenstecher, 21, a member of the Chi Omega sorority. “The symptoms were there, but you have to culture to be sure.” She was hoping the results would be in late Saturday.

Lane County Public Health was notified of Pagenstecher’s condition, and the probability that she was suffering from bacterial meningitis, also known as meningococcal disease, about 4:15 p.m. on Friday, Stuver said. Pagenstecher died about 5 p.m. Friday, she said.

Health officials and the university mobilized Friday evening and provided 104 individuals on campus, mostly at the Chi Omega house, with the preventative antibiotic Cipro, Stuver said. About 50 other students received the medication at the UO’s student health center on Saturday, UO spokeswoman Julie Brown said.

A statement on the center’s website Saturday said: “The risk of transmission is considered to be quite low. In order for the illness to spread, a person would need to have close contact with the patient for four hours or more over the past seven days.”

There were about 4,100 cases annually of bacterial meningitis, including about 500 deaths, between 2003 and 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

If confirmed, Pagenstecher’s case would be only the third case of bacterial meningitis in Lane County in 2012 — and the first death in years, Lane County Public Health Officer Pat Leudtke said.

In September 2003, a 16-year-old Eugene high school student, Mani Shimada, died of the illness. In 2001, UO freshman Jill Dieringer died after contracting bacterial meningitis.

Certain people are more susceptible to contracting the illness, Stuver said. In fact, Pagenstecher got it as a freshman in 2009, said her father, Gary Pagenstecher of Portland, in an e-mail message to The Register-Guard on Saturday. She was treated for it successfully then, he said.

Pagenstecher had been ill this time for about five days before entering the hospital on Friday, Leudtke said.

The illness, contracted the same way someone gets a cold, by being exposed to coughing or sneezing by someone who carries the bacteria, can spread rapidly and cause death within a few days, he said. About 11 percent of the population can be a carrier of meningococcal bacteria in the nose or back of the throat but usually are not affected by it, according to Lane County Public Health.

The illness, most common among young people who live or spend large amounts of time around others, is typically contracted through face-to-face interaction, kissing or other intimate interaction, sharing dishware or utensils or being in a small space, such as watching television or a study group, health officials say. There is no secondary transmission, according to the UO statement. The illness can’t be contracted from someone else who had close contact with an infected person.

Symptoms resemble those of the flu: high fever, severe headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and confusion. Anyone experiencing such symptoms shouldn’t hesitate to visit the UO student health center Monday through Friday, or an emergency room on the weekend, Stuver said.

A sign on the door of the Chi Omega house at 1421 Alder St. on Saturday read: “The Chi Omega House is closed today. Thank you for understanding.”

The sorority later e-mailed a statement to The Register-Guard, saying: “Chi Omega is saddened by the passing of Lillian Pagenstecher, a member of our Psi Alpha Chapter at University of Oregon. We are respecting the family’s and chapter’s privacy as they mourn the loss of Lillian.”

Pagenstecher’s Twitter account was filled with messages Saturday.

“Saddened to hear about the passing of Lill Pagenstecher,” read a tweet from the UO’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. “Super sweet girl with a big heart. Our thoughts go out to her friends and family.”

Tweeted UO student Matt Walks: “We lost one of our own to bacterial meningitis. It was random, confusing and devastating.”

Pagenstecher was a 2009 graduate of Lincoln High School in Portland. She was the Portland Interscholastic League pole vault champion in 2009 with a leap of 10 feet, 7 inches, and finished third at the state Class 6A track meet at Hayward Field that year with a leap of 10 feet, 9 inches.

Just two weeks ago, she ran the half marathon at the Eugene Marathon with her mother, Toni Pagenstecher.

A candlelight vigil was tentatively scheduled on campus today for Pagenstecher, according to a message posted on her Twitter account.

A memorial service will be held in Portland sometime in mid-June, according to her father.