tzikeh

Monday evening I was in an eight-person tutor training session. Five minutes ago, I received an email from the tutor center informing me that a woman who attended the same session is in the hospital with meningitis. The hospital does not know yet whether it is viral or bacterial, but they had to inform everyone who has been in contact with her in recent weeks that they were in possible mortal danger (you love to get emails like that, right? I know I do.). Basically, I'm frozen in panic. I won't use Google because at this point I'm not willing to trust anything I read on the internet. The only thing I know for 100% certain about meningitis is that in many cases you can present with no symptoms and be dead several hours later. I don't know how it's transmitted, I don't know what to look for, I don't know the difference between viral or bacterial; I know nothing.

Can someone with real medical knowledge or any kind of experience help me not have a heart attack before the meningitis has a chance to kill me? If you can't reassure me that I'm not going to be dead by this time next week (which you can't), can you tell me what to look for, or what I might do to prepare, or anything at all?