A study published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicates that first-year college students living in dormitories are at a much higher risk than the general college-aged population for contracting the potentially fatal disease bacterial meningitis.

While for all Americans aged 18 to 23 the overall incidence of meningitis during a one-year period was 1.4 cases per 100,000 individuals, for first-years living in dorms the rate was 5.1 cases per 100,000.

“Because of the close quarters in which they live, freshmen in dormitories may be exposed to N meningitides more frequently than other college students,” the study reported.

However, college students as a whole were less likely to contract the disease than the general college-aged population.

While the JAMA article said that more study was needed to understand why college students as a whole were less likely to be infected than their peers not in school, it did note that the drop in infections after the first year made sense.

“The exposed freshmen…would develop protective immunity leading to lower rates in subsequent years,” the study reports.

While rare, meningitis can be an extremely serious disease if contracted. Virtually all of those sickened by the disease require hospitalization and roughly one in ten die.

The study supports recent recommendations by the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which say doctors should inform incoming first-year students and their parents about an immunization that is available to protect against meningitis infection. However, the vaccine only works against two of three strains of the meningitis bacteria.