Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/meningitis-rise-among-toddlers-897
Meningitis on rise among toddlers (Tamil Nadu)
May 19th, 2010
DC Correspondent
May 18: When one year-old Kamakshi (name changed) died at the government children?s hospital despite all efforts to save her life, pediatricians sought the permission of her heart-broken parents to extract a small sample from the child?s spinal cord.
A series of tests revealed that she had died of pneumococcal meningitis, a rare but dangerous strain of the bacterial disease meningitis or ?brain fever?. Dr Sharadha Suresh, director of the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, said that along with pneumonia, meningitis has also emerged in recent times as a major threat to kids, especially those who are under two years in age.
ICH is now conducting a hospital-based surveillance study on the prevalence of meningitis in the children referred to them by other healthcare centres across the state. ?We get 300 suspected cases of meningitis in a year, and after conducting tests on 100 persons, we found that 25 children were suffering from Haemopilius Influenzae type B meningitis (HIB), the common form of the disease,? said Dr P. Ramachandran, who is heading the two-year project at the hospital.
Children suffering from meningitis show symptoms such as high fever, unconsciousness, and sometimes even epileptic fits. While the mortality is high at 20 per cent, one third of the children who contract the disease survive but suffer nerve damage, and become retarded or paralysed.
Similar studies are being conducted at New Delhi, Lucknow and Christian Medical College in Vellore to assess the feasibility of including the HIB vaccine in the national immunisation programme. ?The vaccine costs anywhere between Rs 300 and Rs 400, and private hospitals have been administering it to children for the last seven years,? said Dr Ramachandran.?The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization has offered to subsidise the vaccine and supply it for Rs 20.?
Meningitis on rise among toddlers (Tamil Nadu)
May 19th, 2010
DC Correspondent
May 18: When one year-old Kamakshi (name changed) died at the government children?s hospital despite all efforts to save her life, pediatricians sought the permission of her heart-broken parents to extract a small sample from the child?s spinal cord.
A series of tests revealed that she had died of pneumococcal meningitis, a rare but dangerous strain of the bacterial disease meningitis or ?brain fever?. Dr Sharadha Suresh, director of the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, said that along with pneumonia, meningitis has also emerged in recent times as a major threat to kids, especially those who are under two years in age.
ICH is now conducting a hospital-based surveillance study on the prevalence of meningitis in the children referred to them by other healthcare centres across the state. ?We get 300 suspected cases of meningitis in a year, and after conducting tests on 100 persons, we found that 25 children were suffering from Haemopilius Influenzae type B meningitis (HIB), the common form of the disease,? said Dr P. Ramachandran, who is heading the two-year project at the hospital.
Children suffering from meningitis show symptoms such as high fever, unconsciousness, and sometimes even epileptic fits. While the mortality is high at 20 per cent, one third of the children who contract the disease survive but suffer nerve damage, and become retarded or paralysed.
Similar studies are being conducted at New Delhi, Lucknow and Christian Medical College in Vellore to assess the feasibility of including the HIB vaccine in the national immunisation programme. ?The vaccine costs anywhere between Rs 300 and Rs 400, and private hospitals have been administering it to children for the last seven years,? said Dr Ramachandran.?The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization has offered to subsidise the vaccine and supply it for Rs 20.?