It is very rare for college students to get it.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Meningitis on three campuses leads to one outbreak and one death

In recent weeks, three different college campuses have seen instances of meningitis — one which resulted in the death of a university employee — but only one of those instances qualified as an outbreak prompting widespread vaccinations of the student body.

Bacterial meningitis is a rare but dangerous infectious disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It can cause neurological damage, necessitate amputation or lead to death in some cases. It’s relatively rare on college campuses, being more prone to affect adolescents, but there have been a number of outbreaks on campus in the last year, at the University of Oregon, for example, and Princeton University, and almost 30 reported infections on campuses between 2013 and 2015, according to data from the National Meningitis Association.

In the most recent outbreak, at Santa Clara University, three students had been infected as of Friday, two with meningitis and one with a bloodstream infection caused by the same bacteria. One of the students has been discharged from the hospital, and the other two are in fair condition, according to a university spokeswoman.