MEASLES OR MENINGOCOCCEMIA? Death of baby stirs barangay

The death of an eight-month old baby girl, believed to be due to meningococcemia, caused a stir among residents of barangay San Roque, Cebu City yesterday.

City Health officer Dr. Fe Cabugao said that she is not yet dimissing the possibility that the infant died of meningococcemia, saying that not enough laboratory tests were done to confirm the real cause of the death. She however said that the grandmother of the baby girl told her that the child suffered from recurring fever for two weeks due to measles locally known as tipdas.

Cabugao said that the victim died at around 7:00 am yesterday, the day after she was confined at the Cebu City Medical Center.

The city health officer explained that the child, who displayed symptoms of the disease, will always remain as a meningococcemia suspect as there are no confirmatory laboratory test results. She said that the hospital had gotten blood samples from the child, but these samples are insufficient for further laboratory tests.

Cabugao added that that there is no cause for alarm though as they have done the standard operating procedures including giving prophylaxis to the immediate family of the victim and those, who had direct contact with the child.

When it was reported over the radio that the child died of meningococcemia, this alarmed the neighbors including San Roque barangay Captain Rogelio Ruizo, who immediately went to the hospital to confirm it.

In an interview with The Freeman, Ruizo said that he had received the said report from residents of the place, who called up a radio station. He confirmed that the cause of death was measles.

What alarmed the residents was that the child's body was wrapped in a blanket bound with packaging tape. The parents however belied this report saying that the body was just wrapped in a blanket by the hospital staff, but there was no packaging tape used to bind it.

Personnel from the hospital wrapped the body since the couple took a public utility jeepney to take the body to their residence. Cabugao said that this would not have been allowed had they confirmed that it was really a case of menigococcemia.

Since the neighbors shooed the parents of the infant away from the area believing the child succumbed to the contagious disease, the couple had the body immediately buried at the Carreta cemetery.

Dr. Cabugao said that they will again give prophylaxis to the parents of the baby and all those who had direct contact with her before and after her death. They will also do contact tracing to get more information on the cause of the child's death.

Last year there were three reported cases of meningococcemia recorded by the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit in Central Visayas, but these were already treated according to health officials. All cases were in Negros Oriental.

Also medically known as Meningococcal Septicemia (blood poisoning) or Meningococcal Bacteremia, meningococcemia is an acute infection caused by the bacteria called Neisseria meningitides, a meningococcus. The bacteria frequently live in the upper respiratory tract, causing no disease. A trigger event that is not clearly understood turns these bacteria into a potentially fatal aggressor that causes vasculitis (inflammation of the inner wall of the arteries), meningococcal septicemia, and meningitis (inflammation of the coverings of the brain), which, if untreated promptly, could be deadly.

Meningococcemia is transmitted from person to person by respiratory droplets like inhaling the air by breathing, talking, or coughing of the infected patient much like a common cold. With the greatest risk of getting the infection are close friends and family members. Infants up to six months are resistant to the infection because of passively acquired maternal immunoglobulin G antibodies, but those four years and younger appear to have the greatest risk of getting the infection.

Usually symptoms are few. At the onset, there may be fever, irritability, anxiety and petechial (spotty red or purplish) skin rash. Later, the patient may appear to be acutely ill, with changing level of consciousness, with large areas of hemorrhage (bleeding) and/or thrombosis (blood clots) under the skin. Shock usually follows these. If not diagnosed and properly treated early, meningococcemia is usually fatal.