Ho Chi Minh City: Meningococcal necrosis secretly plays dough

In Ho Chi Minh City, meningococcal disease tends to be complicated. From yesterday, Children's Hospital II had to give staff and health workers contact with patients to take preventive medicine.

Doctor at Children's Hospital II (Ho Chi Minh City) is caring and treating Thanh Mai baby. (Photo of VNN taken on the afternoon of March 23) On the morning of March 20, Children Hospital II received a patient named Hoang Thi Thanh Mai, 3-year-old house in Binh Chieu, Thu Duc in a state of high fever. tight, vomiting.

Through clinical examination and laboratory tests, he found that he had meningococcal encephalitis.

Meningococcal inflammation: 6 diseases, 3 deaths, 2 unknown cases

Thus, in the past few weeks, there have been 6 cases of meningococcal disease in Ho Chi Minh City, of which 3 have died. The number of cases is concentrated in Thu Duc District.

At 16:00 on March 22, at Khoa Nhac - Dong II Children's Hospital, Thanh Mai was still thiem card although even after diagnosing her illness, she was treated with strong antibiotics. very tired, lethargic.

Dr. Tran Thi Viet, Head of Infection, Children's Hospital II, said that meningococcal disease is also called meningococcal brain caused by a type of bacteria only in humans.

Dr. Viet also added that Thanh Mai baby case mentioned above was determined to be infected with group C.

Two previous surviving cases in Thu Duc were infected with Group B

Particularly, 2 out of 3 cases of death have not yet determined the type.

Habitat polluted, cramped, humid is an important reason for epidemics to appear. Evidence is that the past cases have all come from temporary accommodation areas of workers. Anyone can get sick, but in fact, the most susceptible age group is 5-15 years old

Burmese caused by meningococcal disease (Photo: thailabonline) This bacterium is localized in the nose and throat of some people but does not cause disease (called a carrier), about 10% of people live in cool environments. If living in a crowded and crowded environment, poor hygiene is much higher. The disease will flare up when the body is weakened or infected before.

Previously, this disease was very common but in the last 5 years it has decreased significantly due to the vaccine.

The number of patients with meningococcal disease is only about 10-20% but the mortality rate is very high, about 50%, despite being given emergency care, if it survives, it must also be skin grafted because of the rash. Damaged skin, there are cases of skin grafting.

The special thing that epidemiologists have not explained is that the more healthy the person is, the stronger the resistance, the more plump the breast-feeding child will fall into the ultimate body of sepsis.

Of all the bacteria that cause meningitis, the bacteria that cause the meningococcus are most contagious and spread through secretions of the respiratory tract.

The disease starts very suddenly, does not last long.

Therefore, parents should be aware that if they suddenly become very hot, cough, sore throat (or sometimes do not cough, sore throat) but have vomiting. At the same time, there appear purple spots on the skin, hemorrhage in the eyes for a short time, they must be brought to the hospital immediately without self-treatment.

Upon admission, the child will receive a blood test right away, if there is a sign of suspicion that the meninges will receive a brain test.

Vaccination: Only 2 types of diseases can be prevented

In order to prevent health workers from contacting children, from afternoon to March 23, Children's Hospital II organized for all medical staff of Khoa Nhin and staff who had initial contact with the disease. The patient takes a single dose of Ofloxacin 400mg.

There are currently Meningo Bridge Meningococcal vaccines but only 2 types are A & C, and type B & D is not yet available.

The disease is most contagious in the first 24-48 hours of detection.

According to the doctors at Children's Hospital II, if conditions must be isolated children infected. However, due to the condition of the rooms in the hospital, the infection is still narrow, so children with other diseases still have to share a room with children with meningococcal disease.

Meningococcus (neisseria meninggitidis), the causative agent of meningococcal disease. (Photo: brown)
When infected, if the body is mildest, the patient only has sore throat and can recover.

If at a severe level, there will be 2 illnesses:

-The infection in the brain causes meningitis and infection in the central nervous system. This is a very serious disease like the case of Mai. If detected early and treated with appropriate antibiotics, the disease will recede quickly after 24-48 hours and rarely leave sequelae.

-Infections in the blood cause sepsis: patients do not suffer from meningitis but that does not mean that it is not dangerous, especially in the dark body, patients will die very quickly after only 24-48 hours, the rate fatal up to 50%, if survived, a skin transplant must also be performed due to necrotic skin. The last two deaths at Tam Binh Thu Duc also have septicemia caused by meningococcus.

When infected with meningococcal disease, patients will have symptoms such as cough, sore throat, fever, chills, muscle pain, lethargy, shock, there are nodules on the skin (on the skin with dark, red spots, There are many different sizes, there is a small one like a head with a big, patchy shape like a rash, which leads to necrosis.

Nhat Phuong