KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A Kansas University journalism student who contracted bacterial meningitis was in critical condition Thursday at University of Kansas Hospital, breathing on a ventilator but able to communicate by nodding.

“We need to get him better,” said a choked-up Malcolm Gibson, general manager of the University Daily Kansan student newspaper. “It’s scary. This is very serious.”

Meanwhile, campus health officials spent the day trying to find everyone who came into close contact the past week with the student, 22-year-old Andrew Marso of St. Cloud, Minn. By day’s end, doctors had spoken with more than 150 people, many of whom work with Marso at the newspaper or live with him in Pearson Scholarship Hall, and distributed antibiotics to about 40 people as a precaution.

Bacterial meningitis, an infection of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord, is fatal for roughly one in eight patients and is spread by exchanged saliva, for example, by sharing a drinking glass. Symptoms include headaches, fever, stiff neck and flulike symptoms, which health officials said people should watch for in the next 10 days.

“If you’re starting to feel kind of funny and you had close contact with him, we want to see you sooner instead of later,” said Myra Strother, chief of staff at Watkins Student Health Center. “I think we’ve contacted pretty much everybody now.”

Strother said it was impossible to know how Marso contracted meningitis. About 15 percent of people carry the bacteria in the back of the throat all the time, but the last reported case at KU happened in February 2002.

Marso went to a party Saturday night, Gibson said, and began feeling ill Tuesday night as he covered a sporting event for the Basehor Sentinel. Fellow scholarship hall residents were “watching over him,” Gibson said, saw he was sick and took him to Watkins.

Marso was treated with antibiotics as soon as he was diagnosed at Watkins, Strother said, but often by the time antibiotics kill the bacteria it has released enough toxins into the body to cause serious problems. He was then taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and flown by air ambulance to Kansas City.

The disease causes vasculitis — inflamed blood vessels — and brain swelling, which can be lethal in combination, said Daniel Hinthorn, a faculty member at KU Medical Center.

“A person can go downhill pretty fast,” he said. “We’ve seen some people that will come in and die within 12 hours after just the onset of the disease.”

Long-term effects for survivors can include amputations or neurological damage similar to that caused by a stroke.

Strother and psychological counselors visited the Kansan newsroom Thursday to talk with students. Gibson said he sensed the main concern among the students was for Marso’s health, not whether the disease would spread.

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On Thursday afternoon, Kansan staff members sat in front of computers going about their usual work, but they also were filming a video greeting to send to Marso.

“It’s just a shocker,” reporter Dave Nobles said. “A disease like this can affect you for the rest of your life.”

Some were encouraged by the fact that Marso had made it through a day in the hospital.

“It takes them a long time to tell if he’s going to recover, and I think that’s what we’re waiting on now,” Strother said. “Every day that he stays stable at this point and doesn’t get worse is a good sign.”