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Thursday, June 16, 2005
Dead girl a case of meningococcemia?
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A provincial official said Wednesday health authorities and the Provincial Government should look into the suspected case of meningococcemia in the province which has claimed the life of a girl from Macabebe.
Pampanga Third District Board Member Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. said government officials should study the case to determine if the disease that afflicted the girl is indeed the dreaded meningococcemia.
He said authorities should not be complacent in handling the case as it may risk the lives of more people.
A Department of Health (DOH) official had said the girl, whose identity was withheld, expired in a private hospital in the city reportedly due to meningococcemia.
Accordingly, personnel of the hospital, who had close contacts with the girl, including the victim's relatives, were given antibiotics to strengthen their immune system.
Meningococcemia is an acute infection of the bloodstream and subsequent inflammation of the blood vessels caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.
The disease has a high fatality rate of 30-50 percent, which means one out of every two meningococcemia patients dies after contracting the disease.
Early this year, several cases of meningococcemia strain hit Baguio City and Benguet province, pulling down the summer capital's business sector by some 80 percent.
Gonzales said proper information dissemination should be conducted to prevent the public from speculating and falling into undue panic.
He said he would ask the DOH to reassess hospitals in the province as to their readiness in dealing with cases of meningococcemia.
"Let's just hope that it was not really meningococcemia that has afflicted the girl," Gonzales said. (ABL)
(June 16, 2005 issue)
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