The outbreak of meningitis at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara has gotten worse, as a fourth student has reportedly come down with the illness.

The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department confirmed Monday all four students were fell ill last month, the Associated Press reported. Around 300 students known to have had contact with the infected are being administered antibiotics.

Aaron Loy, a freshman lacrosse player, is currently hospitalized as one of the four infected students. He recently had to have both of his feet amputated due to blood supply to those limbs being affected.

"It's such an obscure, scary disease, so a lot of students are concerned," Jonathan Abboud, a 21-year-old political science major and student government president, told the Los Angeles Times. "A lot of students aren't sharing drinks and food as much as they used to because that's one less thing to get us sick.... It's on everyone's mind."

The disease is transferrable by prolonged contact, especially kissing, coughing and other types of contact. Olivia Ravasio, a 20-year-old senior, told the LAT she is taking the extra precautions in her sorority house by cleaning dishes and countertops more than usual.

"The paranoia is absolutely terrible," Ravasio, a 20-year-old senior, said in an email. "Wake up and your neck hurts. On any other day, you think nothing of it, but now it's like, 'Should I go to the hospital? Why does my head hurt? Better safe than sorry?'"

Symptoms for meningitis include headache, stiff neck, vomiting, fever and nausea. Princeton University, in New Jersey, also had a meningitis outbreak this year, putting the illness on both coasts within close timing of the other. As a precaution, UC-Santa Barbara has created a webpage for meningitis health alerts and tips.

The website contains all of the school's related press releases and health alert emails sent to students, faculty and families. The site also details what meningitis is and the best ways to prevent it.

The outbreaks on UC-Santa Barbara and Princeton's campuses are almost certainly unrelated. Tom Clark, chief of the meningitis branch at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the LAT he was surprised to even see two separate outbreaks so close to one another, let alone on opposite coasts.

"It's pretty unusual to have two outbreaks at the same time," he said. "Last year, we had about 500 cases of meningococcal disease in the nation, and 98% are sporadic and occur by themselves with no secondary cases. Only in about 2% of cases does transmission occur."