A two-year-old girl died yesterday in Evreux hospital, in Normandy, victim of fulminant bacterial meningitis. The Regional Health Agency is setting up a health emergency procedure. The town hall communicates an emergency telephone number. In France, meningitis causes around thirty deaths every year. They mainly affect children under 5 and adolescents.
It is a tragic story as it happens about thirty times each year in France. A two-year-old girl was hospitalized at Evreux hospital, where she died yesterday. She suffered from a fulminant form of meningitis, a fairly common infection of the meninges. It is not serious when it is due to a virus. It becomes serious if it is a bacteria and fatal if treatment is not promptly provided for purpura fulminans.
The regional health agency (ARS) has put in place an emergency health procedure, because the contamination of other children who have had contact with the girl at the nursery (Isambard) is probable and the infected children must be identified so that we can give them a preventive antibiotic treatment and check their vaccination record. The town hall of Evreux has also set up alert numbers (02 32 31 52 52 or 06 77 09 23 00).
Symptoms of meningitis
Meningitis causes a very violent headache and jet vomiting … This exists in many infections, but is added, in the event of damage to the meninges, to a very specific sign: stiffness of the neck, that the doctor easily found, but that parents can suspect if the child remains in a gun dog, his head under the sheets. There is no doubt that the brains are suffering.
He must then be hospitalized urgently. We begin by eliminating the diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage, incompatible with the lumbar puncture of which the state of the liquid is the justice of the peace … If it is purulent, it is a meningitis due to a bacteria. It is serious, but theoretically sensitive to antibiotics that must be injected quickly. Either the liquid is clear and there are two solutions after analysis. Either it is meningitis due to a virus… And we are a little helpless, but in general it is not serious. Or, finally, the liquid is pure as water and it is a meningeal syndrome, much less serious.
Only meningitis due to bacteria is to be feared.
In 80% of cases, it is a virus. It is painful and painful to bear, there is no real specific treatment, but healing is the rule. Quite another story with a meningococcal type bacteria as is unfortunately the case for this little girl: the cerebrospinal fluid becomes purulent and the whole nervous system is in danger. If it is a fulminant form, the meningitis turns into a generalized infection, sepsis, which can lead to death very quickly, due to shock. This is an extreme emergency which, fortunately, if the diagnosis is made on time, can benefit from the dramatic effect of antibiotics.
There are lightning meningitis.
In France, meningitis causes around thirty deaths per year. They mainly affect children under 5 and adolescents. Antibiotics are effective as long as the treatment is very quick. This is not the case once in 10. This is the case with this dramatic meningitis in Eveux. It is the reappearance of a fulminant and fatal form of meningitis in the region. This is why the ARS is on alert
Vaccination … always vaccination!
Vaccination is not effective against all forms of meningitis, but for that fatal due to meningococcus C there is a vaccine that is more than 90% effective.
For the entourage antibiotic treatment and broad vaccination is essential. This is what the Regional Health Agency will set up.
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