Meningitis alert at Franklin County schools is false alarm 

Parents of students at two Franklin County schools received as many calls Wednesday after a false alarm over a meningitis scare prompted school officials to issue an alert.

In an open letter to parents, Superintendent Mark Church explained that on Tuesday, the emergency department at Carilion contacted the school system to say that a high school student had been diagnosed with meningitis. However on Wednesday morning, schools were informed that the student had not tested positive.

The alert went to parents of students at Franklin County High School and Benjamin Franklin Middle School, school officials said.

The initial alert was underscored by fears dating back to last autumn, when the U.S. health care industry responded to more than 700 complaints of people sickened by steroids that were routinely injected to alleviate pain. Nearly 60 of those people later died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In his letter to parents, Church wrote that the school system acted swiftly upon receiving the erroneous notice of the possible meningitis case.

“While we recognize that an alert such as this morning’s call-out is stressful, we strive to provide current and accurate information,” the letter states.

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