The patient, who has not been identified, is being treated at University of Louisville Hospital for meningococcal meningitis, although a culture has not confirmed the doctors' diagnosis.

The Jefferson County Health Department is looking at the runs that the technician worked in the last week to 10 days, to see if any patients need an antibiotic, said Dave Langdon, the Health Department's spokesman.

''This type of meningitis . . . has a very rapid course -- that is why people get concerned about it,'' said Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, Health Department Communicable Disease Director.

Meningococcal meningitis is rare; there are usually less than 10 cases a year in Jefferson County, Humbaugh said.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the linings of the brain or spinal cord; symptoms include fever, stiff neck, headache and a rash.

''There is no reason for people to panic,'' Langdon said. ''It is difficult to spread this disease, and while people who have come into contact need to know the symptoms, this is not a public health emergency.''

The disease is spread through direct contact with oral or nasal secretions, drinking or eating after someone, kissing or smoking the same cigarette, Langdon said. But it cannot be transmitted through casual contact, he said.