New Fake Weed or Meningitus Concern

The Champaign-Urbana Public Health Department had a couple updates this week about fake weed / bleeding issue affecting the State not popping up in our area (following up on an April post). From this past Wednesday's News-Gazette:

State seeing more reports of bleeding linked to fake pot
More cases of severe bleeding in Illinois have been linked to the use of synthetic cannabinoids.

Most of the new cases occurred in Winnebago County, and Wisconsin has also reported cases, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

More than 160 people in 14 Illinois counties have experienced bleeding from the use of fake pot, which is also called K2 and Spice. None of the cases have turned up in East Central Illinois counties to date, according to the health department.

Full blurb here. A meningitis case in Vermilion County was not the highly infectious variety that can cause medical alarm, especially in a college town like ours. It wasn't even a type required to be reported to public health agencies, though it can be just so everyone is aware what's going on. More on that from same paper:

Rare, nonreportable form of meningitis blamed in Danville woman's death
The Vermilion County Health Department said it wasn't notified about a fatal case of bacterial meningitis earlier this month because it wasn't a more common bacterial form of the disease that medical providers are required to report...

With both viral and bacterial meningitis, people experience symptoms such as headache, stiff neck and low-trade fever, but those with the more common viral meningitis generally get better in a few days. Bacterial meningitis can progress to become life-threatening.

Toole said the last case of bacterial meningitis involving the bacterial strain Neisseria meningiditis in Vermilion County was in 2011. Neisseria meningiditis is the culprit behind meningococcal disease.

Vaid said local hospitals typically report any case of bacterial meningitis to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, even if they're not required to do that, if they see something unusual or are waiting on lab confirmations about a suspicious infection. In Ms. Kiley's case, her Carle caregivers knew the source of her infection through testing, he said.

Full blurb here.