The latest case involved a 65-year-old Manchester area woman who was treated with antibiotics promptly enough that she did not contract the full-blown ailment, Dr. Jesse Greenblatt said. Her bloodstream was infected with the meningococcus bacteria, but it had not crossed over to the spinal fluid, he said.

Bacterial meningitis has claimed one woman's life and infected four teenage boys in the last two weeks. The case announced Tuesday represents the first non-teenager to become infected in the recent cases in northern, central and southwestern New Hampshire.

The woman went to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester after she first developed symptoms of the disease Monday, state Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said.

The first two cases were detected Dec. 20 and 21 in Brady Ells and Louis Gilman, both 15-year-old sophomores at Monadnock Regional High School in Swanzey.