Yesterday we reported the news of a 9-year-old girl from Manresa who had died due to fulminating meningitis, everything seemed to indicate that type B due to the severity of the condition. However, the Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat, Joan Guix, has just announced that, after the analysis carried out it is confirmed that it was a type C meningitis, whose vaccine has been free in Spain for years.
They have also indicated that "the vaccine does not appear in the primer", despite appearing on the official vaccination schedule. According to the latest vaccine schedule, three doses are administered: at four months, between 12 and 15 months, and one last dose in adolescence.
The best prevention, vaccination
Meningitis It is a contagious disease caused by viruses or bacteria. Viral meningitis occurs more frequently than bacterial meningitis and is milder, while meningococcal meningitis, as in this case, is a serious bacterial infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Is life threatening.
The meningococcus bacteria produces inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, and in the worst case it can end up producing a sepsis (generalized infection) that can end up with important sequelae and even the death of the affected person.
Symptoms usually appear quickly, including stiff neck and spine, severe headache, shotgun vomiting and photophobia.
There are several families (serogroups) of meningococcus and each requires a specific vaccine. The most important are serogroups A, B, C, W135, X and Y. In Europe, B and C predominate, but the latter has declined greatly since the meningitis C vaccine was included in the children's calendar.
For serogroup B, prevention is the Bexsero vaccine, which is not included in the vaccine schedule, and despite being on sale since October 2015 for parents who wish to buy it after an optional prescription, very few doses They arrive at pharmacies.
The infection can be treated with antibiotics, but sometimes its progress is so rapid that medications are not effective. Manresa's girl passed away in a few hours. "There was a spread of the bacteria, from the pharynx it passed into the blood and produced a multiorgan failure," said the head of the maternal and child service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu de Manresa, Santi Nevot, as we read in El País .
The evolution of meningitis was very fast, so the best weapon to prevent fulminant disease is vaccination.
The girl had not been vaccinated
"We are not aware that she was vaccinated," said Public Health Secretary Joan Guix, despite the fact that The vaccine is included in the systematic vaccine schedule funded by the public health system.
"The coverage is 95% in the four-month dose, 94% in the 12-month dose and 97.5% in the 11-year dose," said Deputy Director General of Health Promotion Department of Cheers, Carme Cabezas.
Other cases in Catalonia
The Generalitat reiterates that the cases detected in recent months "They are unrelated" nor is it an epidemic outbreak.
The first case was that of a two-year-old boy who died at the Josep Trueta hospital in Girona, after suffering a clinical picture of meningitis, although it has not yet been possible to find out the microorganism that caused the disease.
The second was that of this girl who died of fulminant form, while the third case reported is that of a minor from Berga, but this time it is a viral meningitis that evolves favorably.
Health also suspects another case, still to be confirmed, in the area of Central Catalonia, which has had to be transferred to a hospital in Barcelona.
