NATION : Disease Kills 2 at U. of Illinois
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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Two students at the University of Illinois have died from a meningitis-related illness and hundreds of others may have been exposed to the disease.
School spokesman Terry Shepard said the second death was reported this morning but he had no further details. School officials planned a news conference later in the day in an effort to ease fears around the Champaign-Urbana campus.
Gregory Mank, 19, an engineering student, died from meningococcemia on Saturday night. The communicable nature of blood infection prompted the university Office of Student Affairs to contact about 850 students who may have been in close contact with the student Thursday and Friday.
Those students were urged to take oral antibiotics, and Shepard said hundreds had already done that by today.
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