In a statement, the Rhône-Alpes Regional Health Agency (ARS) has just confirmed the death of a 21-year-old young woman, a student at Lyon III University in the Rhône, from a invasive meningococcal disease of group B.
Following this infection, all the people who had been in contact with the young woman were identified and received preventive antibiotic treatment. Indeed, although the risk of transmission is low, it justifies the implementation of a treatment for people who have had close and prolonged contact with the affected person in the 10 days preceding the declaration of the disease.
A disease that is transmitted through oropharyngeal secretions
Invasive meningococcal disease is a rare disease in France (the incidence rate in the Rhône is 0.78 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) but can be serious. About 10% of the population carries meningococci in the pharynx (back of the throat) which does not cause disease most of the time. But exceptionally, the bacterium will develop an invasive meningococcal infection, the most frequent manifestations of which are meningococcal meningitis and septicemia.
It is transmitted directly from one person to another from oropharyngeal secretions (sputum, cough, etc.). It mainly affects infants, children under 4 years old and adolescents and most often occurs from the beginning of winter to spring.
And since the first symptoms are unmistakably similar to those of the flu, it is important to know them and not to hesitate to go to the emergency room in the slightest doubt.
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