MOUNT HOREB, Wis. -- A Mount Horeb High School student died of bacterial meningitis on Saturday, according to local health officials.

Thomas Schlenker, the director of Public Health -- Madison & Dane County, said he didn't know how long the 16-year-old was sick before she died.

The girl was identified as Haleyem M. Thorpe, according to an obituary posted Monday in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Schlenker said local health officials have started an investigation to talk with the girl's family members and are trying to determine who were the victim's close contacts and who lived with at her household. This will allow officials to determine who might need preventative antibiotics. Schlenker said that the girl was healthy prior to the illness.

He said he doesn't believe there is a widespread threat to the community and said this kind of meningitis is an isolated incident.

"This is rather typical of meginioccal disease is that it strikes people who are perfectly healthy very much at random in a very unpredictable kind of way and proceeds very rapidly and a very, very serious illness can ensue within 24 hours," he said.

Bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the membrane that covers the brain or spinal cord.

Mount Horeb school officials sent out an e-mail about Thorpe's death to parents on Sunday. The e-mail explained symptoms of the disease and how it is spread. The letter also said a statement would be read to students on Monday morning.

Schlenker said this is the same type of bacteria that killed University of Wisconsin-Madison student Neha Suri earlier this month, but health officials aren't sure if it was the same strain of bacteria. He called it a "surprising coincidence" but adds these kind of similarities can occur when dealing with a disease as random as this one.

"It is the same type of bacteria so that the approach would be the same in both cases. Whether it the exact same strain, that we don't know yet," he said.

According to health officials, bacterial meningitis can pass from person to person, but researchers aren't sure why the illness becomes fatal. Those who come in close contact with the person falling ill will need preventive antibiotics to ward off the ailment. Close contacts means household members and close friends. They said that people who came in general contact with the victim don't need the antibiotics. They said that this would be fellow students at school, seeing at the mall or sports events. They aren't considered at risk.

Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.