Health Alert: Meningococcal Disease

Do you know what disease tweens and teens are most at risk? Meningococcal disease and meningitis. Menigococcal disease is a rare, but potentially fatal illness that can strike at any time. Each year some 3,000 Americans contract the disease. Of this number, 300 or almost 10% die from the disease. This disease can potentially kill a healthy person in less than 48 hours.

The side effects of the disease are devastating:

• hearing loss
• brain damage
• loss of limbs
• severe scarring
• emotional problems,
• psychological problems, anxiety, depression, difficulty working

The 411 on Meninigitis

Meningitis is the name for infections in the meninges, membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Meningococcal meningitis is the most severe form of the infection.

Who Is at Risk?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stat that their data shows that the risk of contracting meningitis increases in children 11-18. Most at risk students who live in dorms or who spend time in close quarters with each other, like school children. College freshman are 5 times greater at risk than other students. 

How Do You Catch Meningitis?

A person can catch meningitis by having close contact with someone who is sick with the disease. Others carry the bacteria in their nose and throat. If a child, tween, or teen comes in contact with a "carrier," he could become infected with meningitis.

Behaviors that may increase risk of infection:

• Living in close quarters, like a college dorm.
• Being in crowded situations for prolonged periods of time.
• Sharing eating utensils and water bottles.
• Kissing
• Smoking or being exposed to smoke.
• Activities that weaken the immune system, like staying out late or having irregular sleep patterns.

What Are the Symptoms to Look for?

• Severe headache -- the worst the person has ever experinced
• High fever -- 103 degrees F which does not get lower with a tepid bath or fever reducing medication
• Stiff neck -- the membranes around the spinal cord and brain stiffen making moving the neck painful
• Nausea and vomiting
• Numbness or loss of feeling in hands, feet, limbs -- Sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, can reduce the amount of blood that gets to the person's hands or feet causing numbness, coldness, or loss of feeling
• Light sensitivity
• Confusion
• Rash
• Seizures

If you or your child, tween, and teen experience any or all of thse symptoms, you need to be seen by a health care professional immediately. If the person's symptoms are sever, go to the emergency room STAT!

Meningococcal Vaccinations

The risk decreases when adolescents and young adults get vaccinated for this disease. The vaccination for meningococcal meningitis is recommended by the CDC, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College Health Association.

If in doubt about whether you or your child have been vaccinated, ask your health care provider in Baltimore or whatever city or town you live near. Ask when your last vaccine was.

To learn more:

• Go to National Meningitis Association
• Go to Fight Meningitis