GERMANTOWN - Parents fear for their own children while a Germantown High School student is hospitalized with meningitis.

This should be a wake up call for parents to get kids in for a meningitis vaccine.

A poke with a needle was not part of one Germantown sophomore’s spring break plan.

“It kind of hits closer to home when someone at our school has it, not just someone you hear about,” Meredith Humiston said.

Meredith and her sister Jessica both got vaccinated. Deborah Humiston brought her daughters in because a girl at their school is battling meningitis.

“It was really something we weren’t thinking about until they were getting ready to go off to college, but, now we decided definitely we should do it today,” Deborah Humiston said.

This isn’t the only family that’s worried. The health department says a number of parents have called asking how they can protect their children.

“They need to know this disease comes on suddenly with severe headache, stiff neck, high fever,” Washington County Public Health’s Shari Winter said.

Germantown schools posted an online health alert advising that only students who had intimate contact with the infected student are at risk…contact like kissing or sharing food. Still, all kids 11 years or older are urged to get the one-time vaccine.

Debbie feels better now that her girls got that shot.

“I’m not so worried about them going back to school and being around other kids who may have been exposed,” Humiston said.

The girl with meningitis is said to be recovering at Children’s Hospital in fair condition.

The health department believes they have contacted everyone who had intimate contact with the girl and none have shown symptoms.