Student at Middletown school has viral meningitis

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - Viral meningitis has made its way to a school in the Tri-State.

Parents of children enrolled at Middletown Middle School have been notified that one of the students at the school has been diagnosed with viral meningitis.

No information on the condition of the unnamed boy has been released.

The eighth-grade football player does not suffer from the same strain of fungal meningitis linked to a tainted batch of steroid injections. The fungal form of the disease has been linked to at least 20 deaths nationwide

According to the Center for Disease Control website, viral meningitis is generally less severe than the fungal version of the disease and resolves without specific treatment.

According to the website: "Most viral meningitis cases in the United States, especially during the summer months, are caused by enteroviruses; however, only a small number of people with enterovirus infections actually develop meningitis."

The CDC website says, "people who are around someone with viral meningitis have a chance of becoming infected with the virus that made that person sick, but they are not likely to develop meningitis as a complication of the illness."

Officials from the school sent a letter to parents of students to help avoid misinformation being spread about the situation. According to school officials, the letter was sent to avoid the spread of rumors and to provide parents with accurate information about viral meningitis.