A 19 year-old attendee of World Youth Day died of meningitis on her way home to Italy, prompting the Italian bishop’s conference to issue an advisory to pilgrims.

CNA is reporting on the death of Susanna Rufi of Rome who reported feeling ill on Sunday evening shortly after her group arrived in Vienna. Her fellow travelers, who hailed from Saint Polycarp and Our Lady of Good Counsel parishes in Rome, say she was taken to the hospital on Sunday evening and died the next morning.

“She had been preparing for WYD for a year,” recounted Fr. Alessandro, the parish priest of her local Saint Polycarp parish in Rome, according to Corriere della Sera. “She was a wonderful girl, very active in the parish,” he said.

Meningitis is an infection-based inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord which causes symptoms such as headache, fever, and stiff neck. The potentially fatal infection is transmitted by coughing and/or sneezing.

As a result, members of the girl’s pilgrimage group were given a prophylaxis - one 500 mg tablet of Ciprofloxacin - as a precaution.

The Italian bishops’ conference is also passing on the advice of the Vienna hospital that treated Rufi that all WYD attendees who passed through the Italian House – a center set up in Krakow to serve Italian pilgrims – also take a prophylaxis.

Anyone experiencing high fever, sore throat, vision problems or loss of consciousness is advised to seek immediate medical help.

Pope Francis expressed his condolences to Rufi’s family during his General Audience on Wednesday.

We remember with affection Susanna, the Roman girl of this diocese, who died soon after taking part in World Youth Day, while she was in Vienna,” – Pope Francis said – “May the Lord, who certainly welcomed her into Heaven, comfort her family and friends.”

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