Another alert over sick air traveler in the U.S.

Jul 24 2007

Another alert has been triggered in the United States over an air traveler with a serious infection.

This latest scare involves a teenage girl who became seriously ill on an AirTran Airways from Orlando to Wichita by way of Atlanta in Georgia.

The girl, whose identity has not been released, has since been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and is now in a critical condition at Wesley Medical Center.

The airline has notified all passengers who sat near her and all the aircraft she traveled on have been cleaned and returned to service.

The AirTran flight from Orlando to Atlanta was flight 862, and to Wichita, flight 687.

AirTran says the girl became sick and unresponsive on the second flight and an ambulance was called which met the plane at the gate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was then notified by the airline.

Meningitis is a bacterial infection of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord which usually affects children, and is fatal in about 10 percent of cases.

Symptoms include a stiff neck, high fever, headaches and vomiting and it can be contracted by direct close contact with discharges from the nose or throat of an infected person, but not through casual contact or breathing the same air.

AirTran has notified the people who sat in her immediate vicinity.