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Trumpeting Angel - In memory of Janell Burbach |
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A counselor at a Girl Scout camp north of Sioux City died Friday of bacterial meningitis — three days after the camp was closed because of the woman’s illness.
Janell Burbach, 20, of Hartington, Neb., an honors student at the University of South Dakota, had just completed her sophomore year in Vermillion and was working this summer at the 360-acre Joy Hollow scout camp.
She was hospitalized at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City on Tuesday after complaining of flu-like symptoms last weekend, according to her sister, Ronda Mayrose. Burbach was taken off life support systems Friday morning.
“Her brain hemorrhaged,” her father, Ron Burbach, said. “The drug they administered her saved her organs, but not her life. ... This is so hard,” he said in a phone interview Friday. “It’s just like she should be coming through the door.”
Girl Scout spokeswoman Manda Van Kalsbeek said the camp was sanitized and the estimated 40 girls who attended the camp where Burbach was a counselor were given antibiotics. No other cases of meningitis have been reported.
“We are working with Siouxland District Health Agency,” said Van Kalsbeek. “They are sanitizing the camp. All the rest of the camp staff were being treated with the antibiotic.”
Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain. It is a contagious disease spread through saliva.
Iowa sees about 20 cases of bacterial meningitis a year, said Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health. His agency has counted seven cases so far this year, compared to 20 last year, 19 in 2005 and 17 in 2004.
The state does not track the number of meningitis deaths. An 8-year-old girl from Sac City died from the disease in February, according to news reports. A Storm Lake infant and an Aurelia High School student died of the disease last year, and three adults died of meningitis in 2003.
Officials said the other counselors at the camp and the young girls who were camping there have a minimal risk of contracting meningitis. Girl Scouts officials sent letters to the parents of the campers and notified them of the situation, said Van Kalsbeek, an official with the Sioux Trails Girl Scout Council.
Teale said the girls at the camp “would only be at risk if they shared utensils or water bottles with her, or had prolonged face-to-face contact. That’s one thing we want parents to know — if you’re sending a young child off to camp, they need to understand the importance of not sharing water bottles or utensils.”
The camping session at Joy Hollow began June 12. The camp was closed the day after Burbach’s illness was diagnosed, Van Kalsbeek said.
The camp will remain closed until at least Sunday, officials said. Burbach was one of five counselors at the camp.
Burbach’s death stunned her family and friends.
“We were really close. We were two halves of a whole,” said Mayrose. “To not have her is really hard. It’s like half of me is gone.”
Burbach was engaged to Mark Smith of Rapid City, S.D., a member of the South Dakota National Guard who is deployed in Iraq. Smith was expected to return to the U.S. by Friday evening.
Burbach spent her spring break in Chicago helping children with their homework, said South Dakota classmate John Hines, 20.
“I’ve known Janell for over two years,” Hines said. “She had a lot of love to give, and she loved us all.”
Teresa Remilious, dean of students at the University of South Dakota, said the university does not require vaccinations for meningitis.
Teale, the public health official, said the vaccination is a good idea for college students, but it does not protect against one the most common strains of the disease that are found in the Midwest.
“If people are getting this vaccine and thinking it’s a magic bullet, it’s not,” Teale said. He added that people who are vaccinated should still avoid sharing items like drinking glasses.
“A person is only infectious a week before the illness and 24 hours after they start antibiotics,” said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, state epidemiologist for the Iowa Department of Public Health. “It’s a scary disease. It’s one of the few left in our society that can take a healthy young person and kill them quickly.”
My name is what Janell used in her email, msn, yahoo, myspace, and other accounts. She loved trumpeters swans. She believed in the good in everyone. I miss her dearly and it does pain me. May her soul rest in peace.
 Sirena Eri · Fri Jul 06, 2007 @ 02:12am · 3 Comments |
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