With the onset of winter, many children start displaying flu and cold symptoms and parents are often confused as to whether this is the seasonal malady or something else. Due to lack of awareness, they often forget that a very common infection unleashed in this season can also prove to be fatal: Meningitis. In the past few years there has been progress on the awareness front and many schools are now cooperating with medical teams to provide children with the meningitis vaccine particularly in primary schools where it is deemed obligatory. Meningitis is essentially a “spinal fever” caused by a viral or bacterial infection which leads to the inflammation of the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Saudi Gazette spoke with Dr. Sattam Linjawi, an X-Ray Consultant who specializes in brain scans and he commented on the dangers of meningitis and its impact on the child's brain and general health. “The most prominent cause of meningitis is a bacterial infection which is also most common because it can start anywhere in the body and spreads until it reaches the brain or spinal cord via the blood stream,” he explained. “It can also be caused by viral infections where the type of meningitis caused is ascertained by the different types of bacteria that has caused it, including the bacterium that causes syphilis, moville avian, tuberculosis and mananigiococal amongst others.” Although the risk of viral infection is less than a bacterial infection, it becomes more common during winter and can affect up to 75 percent of children - particularly those under the age of five - once it starts spreading unimpeded, Dr. Linjawi indicated. The symptoms are varied but reasonably discernible: High fever with a painful headache, vomiting, continuous pain in the knees and neck, sensitivity to light and reduction in the ability to focus, inactivity and depression. “There are other symptoms that accompany these including reduced lucidity, muscle pain, partial facial paralysis with loose eyelids, chills, rapid breathing, reduction in appetite and more rarely, swelling in the brain,” he added. Parents can follow a number of steps to protect their children from meningitis. “Parents should ensure that they give their children the meningitis vaccines as this protects them from infection, as well as prepare to isolate the child fully from the rest of the family in case of infection so as to reduce the risk of it spreading,” Dr. Linjawi stated. The Ministry of Education has confirmed to the Saudi Gazette that a number of medical teams will visit schools this month to provide the meningitis vaccine. “As usual, the Ministry is cooperating with Jeddah Health Affairs management to visit all government primary schools to vaccinate children, and we have already compiled a schedule for this,” stated Mohammed Al-Dukhani, the media representative of the health affairs commission at the Ministry of Education.
