Lauren Jones, an 18-year-old freshman student at the University of Oregon, is confirmed to have died due to meningitis bacterial infection.
The student-athlete was found unconscious in her dormitory room on Tuesday. An autopsy was immediately conducted by health officials to determine her cause of death and was initially inconclusive.
But after a series of tests, John Davis, spokesman for Lane County Public Health, confirmed on Friday that Jones' death was caused by meningococcemia, according to Reuters.
Meningococcemia is a bacterial infection of the blood caused by a bacteria that causes some types of meningitis. Symptoms of the infection are similar to flu.
Jones is the fourth victim of the meningitis bacterial infection this year. The other three students are already recovering. The university said that they plan to launch a vaccination program by March 2 for about 22,000 students. The school is also tracking people who had close contact with Jones and is offering them antibiotics while waiting for the vaccination to start, the Register-Guard reported.
Davis said that those who are not related to the school do not need to be vaccinated because of low chance of catching the infection.
Only people who spent at least four hours within 10 feet with an infected person are at risk. For Jones' case, the officials have reached out to her close friends and have briefed them on proper monitoring of their health. The infection does not usually display symptoms for the first two weeks.
This is not the first time that the school had a meningitis outbreak, as two students at the University of Oregon died in 2001 and 2012 after contracting the infection.
