Meningitis in the hot season is often caused by pneumococcus, meningococcus, and Hib, and can be prevented with vaccines with over 90% effectiveness.
Doctor Tran Huynh Tan, Medical Manager of VNVC Vaccination System, said meningitis appears sporadically all year round, with an increasing trend during the hot season. The reason is that hot summers are often accompanied by showers, which are favorable conditions for pathogens to multiply and develop. At the same time, extreme weather will reduce resistance, making people susceptible to disease.
Meningitis is a central nervous system infection that is severe, causes death or leaves high sequelae. In particular, meningitis caused by bacterial groups can lead to death within 24 hours. Pathogens such as pneumococcus, meningococcus, and Hib bacteria have effective vaccines for prevention from 2-month-old children and adults.
Pneumococcal vaccine
Pneumococcal meningitis has a high mortality rate and leaves many serious sequelae. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pneumococcal meningitis causes more than 50% of cases of bacterial meningitis, with about 2,000 cases recorded in the US each year. In Vietnam, pneumococcus is the leading cause of meningitis.
The disease can progress very quickly, with a mortality rate of over 50% when not treated promptly. About 30-50% of people who recover from the disease face serious sequelae such as deafness, blindness, paralysis, epilepsy, mental retardation, poor memory and persistent headaches.
According to Dr. Tan, vaccination is an active prevention measure for pneumococcal meningitis and its complications, up to 97% effective. Many studies show that pneumococcal vaccines help reduce hospitalization rates, shorten treatment time, thereby reducing medical costs, compared to non-vaccinated groups.
Vaccines also help reduce the rate of healthy people carrying the infection and limit the spread of pneumococcal infection from this group to the community. Healthy carriers are people who carry the bacteria but do not get sick and do not show symptoms.
Vaccines protect the body from diseases caused by pneumococcus. Image: Healthworld
Meningococcal vaccine
Meningococcal meningitis often occurs suddenly, with symptoms: fever, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, star-shaped purpura (death rash), drowsiness and coma. passionate about. The disease ranks 6th among the 10 infectious diseases with the highest mortality rate, often appearing in Vietnam during the transition between the dry and rainy seasons in June-October.
All subjects are susceptible to meningococcal infection, in which groups under 5 years old, adolescents, and immunocompromised people have a higher incidence. According to WebMD, meningococcus causes serious illness, 15% of infected people die despite intensive treatment, 20% of people who recover still have permanent sequelae such as hearing loss or brain damage…
Meningococcal bacteria have 13 strains, of which A, B, C, Y, W are 5 common strains in Vietnam. The epidemiology of serogroups changes continuously over time in all countries and geographical regions, so it is difficult to predict.
Currently, Vietnam has 3 types of vaccines to prevent 5 dangerous groups of meningococcus including a single shot against group B, a combined shot against groups B, C or groups A, C, Y, W-135. Among them, group B vaccine is a new generation vaccine, effective at protecting up to 95%, early vaccination for children as young as 2 months old.
Vaccine against Hib bacteria
The Expanded Program on Immunization cites a world statistic conducted in 2010, estimating that there are about 8 million cases of pneumonia, purulent meningitis and about 400,000 children die from Hib each year. In Vietnam, Hib accounts for 1/3-1/2 of cases of bacterial meningitis in children under 5 years old.
According to statistics, 5-10% of cases of meningitis caused by Hib bacteria will die, 15-30% will have permanent neurological sequelae such as brain damage, deafness, mental disorders, decreased intelligence, and decreased memory. learning ability, difficulty moving…
To prevent meningitis caused by Hib, children from 2 months of age are recommended to receive 5-in-1 or 6-in-1 combination vaccines containing Hib ingredients. The 4-shot vaccination schedule should be completed before 2 years of age. As for the Hib vaccine, the unit price is for children from 2 months to 15 years old, the number of injections depends on the child’s age.
In addition, to prevent meningitis, Dr. Tan recommends that parents keep the living environment clean, ensure food hygiene and safety, clean the nose and throat area, remind children to wash their hands regularly, and wear masks when eating. Go out and pay attention to social distancing in crowded places. When there are symptoms such as high fever, headache, nausea and vomiting, bulging fontanel, stiff neck, the family needs to take their child to a medical facility for timely examination and treatment.