Dr Sade Fidelis, a Paediatrician with the New life Hospital, Osogbo, has called for more public awareness campaigns on meningitis to prevent sudden death in children.
Fidelis made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo on Monday. The paediatrician described meningitis as a bacterial with an infection of the layers of tissue covering the brain and spinal cord.
Fidelis, however, said that meningitis could occur at any age in children, saying that it often comes from a bacterial infection in the bloodstream called ‘sepsis’.
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According to her, the common symptoms of meningitis in newborns and children under 12 months of age are stiff neck and their inability to communicate properly.
Fidelis said that signs of illness in newborns suffering from serious meningitis include abnormal drowsiness; poor feeding; vomiting and seizures among others.
“In about 25 per cent of newborns with meningitis, increased pressure of the fluid around the brain may make the fontanelles (the soft spots between the skull bones) bulge or feel firm.
These symptoms usually develop over at least one or two days but some infants, particularly those between birth and three or four months of age, become ill very rapidly, progressing from health to near death in less than 24 hours.
It is important that all infants receive the Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) vaccine and the pneumococcal vaccine and that older children and adolescents receive the meningococcal vaccine,” Sade said.
Fidelis urged parents to always ensure regular vaccination and immunisation of their children as part of measures to prevent meningitis. (NAN)
