Lisa Zhu | Treating mental side effects as well

A week after Penn's outbreak of meningitis, things seem to have finally calmed down. Social gatherings have resumed as usual, the collective paranoia over sharing drinks and food has diminished and the three patients are well on their road to recovery. With the incident almost behind us, now may be a good time to review some of the major takeaways from this latest health scare.

To begin with, the University's strategy for handling the meningitis outbreak was an obvious success since no one died and the disease did not spread further than three students. Though some commentators on the Daily Pennsylvanian's Web site criticized Penn for overspending and going too far in its distribution of antibiotics, the University did the right thing in limiting large group gatherings and handing out prophylactics.

"I think the University did a fantastic job on this issue," Microbiology professor Helen Davies said. "This is too dangerous a disease to mess around with .10 percent to 20 percent of meningococcal diseases end up in death if they're not treated properly."

Moreover, the single-pill dosage of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin given out by Student Health Service was ideal. Usually, "one pill doesn't lead to bacterial resistance," Davies said. "Usually, to produce resistance, you take the antibiotic over a period of time, such as several days, and you have to take it insufficiently." In other words, students stressed out about the return of drug-resistant "super-meningoccoci" next year need not worry.

And as for cost efficiency, the amount Penn spent on security measures and antibiotics is probably far less than what it would have to pay if legal damages were to ensue from this incident. One needs to go no further than the Anne Ryan case from last year, where the Emergency Department initially sent the former College sophomore home with a flu diagnosis. After Ryan died of meningitis, her family slapped the University with a malpractice lawsuit that has not yet been resolved.

But while the physical health of students was covered, more could have been done for students' mental health. Specifically, despite three health-advisory emails sent to all undergraduates (and additional notifications provided to communities in closer contact with the infected), a wave of fear still stampeded amok throughout much of the student body.

"People can get panicked and it's hard to say to what extent you can reassure people," Student Health Services director Evelyn Wiener said. "We need to balance the message that we're sending without causing consternation." But in addition to the no-nonsense approach taken by SHS, the University's Counseling and Psychological Services should have been more aggressive in advertising itself as a source for emotionally supportive help and crisis counseling. After all, freaked-out students - especially those who knew the sick students - need warm and fuzzy reassurance in addition to cold, hard facts about the disease.

In fact, students' own fears of a perceived "epidemic" only fanned the flames, creating greater panic and confusion among the undergraduate population. Even worse, half-truths and outright inaccuracies abounded across campus. Even MSNBC reported that a fourth student had been diagnosed when there was no such student. "A lot of people came to conclusions on their own," Wiener said.

Some rumors circulated that Penn would shut down operations for the semester if eight people total contracted meningitis. Other friends of mine said they heard that nine more people were hospitalized from the disease as of Monday night. Needless to say, all of these reports turned out to be untrue, though clearly they succeeded in spreading additional fear and panic.

The added danger from these speculations could create an exacerbated atmosphere of fear that promotes self-diagnosis, or even worse, self-medication, by panicked individual students. Therefore, the key lesson learned from this episode is simply to maintain calm. For students, this means avoiding spreading scary rumors to your peers without proper confirmation, and for administrators, this means providing students with greater mental and emotional support. After all (and I'm sure FDR would agree with me on this one), one can never underestimate the power of fear itself.

Lisa Zhu is a College and Wharton senior from Cherry Hill, NJ. Zhu-ology appears on Thursdays. Her email address is zhu@dailypennsylvanian.com.

The original version of this column incorrectly stated that Anne Ryan was incorrectly diagnosed at Student Health Service. Ms. Ryan first went to the Emergency Department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, not SHS.

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