MENINGITIS: THE QUIET BEFORE THE STORM? (SIMULATION OF AN ON-CAMPUS OUTBREAK)

Bacterial meningitis is a very serious life-threatening illness; that left untreated has a fatality rate of 70 percent. It is an especially serious illness on college campuses where the infection rate is approximately four times greater than the rate for the general population of 18-23 year olds. In 2008, the University of Central Florida (UCF) implemented an inoculation and education policy. This research was interested in determining the effect of the meningitis policy with respect to safeguarding the UCF community. In order to research this issue, deterministic models for meningitis outbreaks on the UCF campus were created and run as simulations using base and alternate input variables. Results from the simulations showed significant benefits could be achieved when inoculation and education programs are combined. More importantly, it demonstrated that simulation could be an effective tool for analyzing healthcare issues and formulating healthcare policy.