Meningitis

Bacterium Neisseria meningitidis

The bacterium Neisseria meningitidis, which causes meningococcal infection and its dangerous consequences - meningitis, meningoencephalitis and sepsis - is transmitted from one infected to another and colonizes the lining of the tonsils and pharyngeal walls. Read more here.

Generalized meningococcal disease (GFMI)

The generalized form of meningococcal infection is very dangerous: every fifth patient (19%) died in 2023. Doctors warn parents to see a doctor immediately at the first warning signs. High fever, which is seriously confused by antipyretic agents, pallor of the skin and an unusual rash on the body, should be alerted. In these cases, it is impossible to self-medicate - it is necessary to urgently call an ambulance.

"GFMI is developing rapidly. The daily mortality rate with it is 67% - most of the sick die in less than 24 hours. Among them there are adults, but most often, these are children. Unfortunately, we still cannot understand why in some children the infection is mild, some do not even get sick, but remain carriers, and others it starts rapidly, moreover, alas, often with a fatal outcome, despite all the efforts of doctors, Alla Vilnitz, Doctor of Medical Sciences, neurologist, leading researcher of the Department of Vaccine Prophylaxis and Post-Vaccination Pathology of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Children's Scientific and Clinical Center for Infectious Diseases of the FMBA," said in June 2024. - And no, there is no prevention other than vaccination. "

2023: Death of two Ozon employees who contracted meningococcal disease in Yekaterinburg

On July 6, 2023, it became known about the death of two Ozon employees infected with meningococcus in Yekaterinburg. In total, Rospotrebnadzor in the Sverdlovsk region recorded seven cases of the development of such an infection in the company. Read more here.

2022: An outbreak of infectious meningitis occurred at the Ozon warehouse in the Moscow region

At the end of November 2022, 11 people working at the Ozon warehouse in Istra near Moscow were hospitalized with infectious meningitis. At the same time, more than 15 people with signs of ARVI were identified in the foci, they were placed in medical institutions for treatment, observation and laboratory examination. Read more here.

2019: Global meningitis deaths have dropped by one and a half times in the last 30 years

In 2019, 2.51 million cases of meningitis were recorded globally, and the number of deaths due to this disease amounted to approximately 236 thousand. Such figures are given in a study, the results of which were published in mid-August 2023 in the journal The Lancet: Neurology.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) notes, meningitis is a severe disease with high mortality, which can cause serious long-term complications. The ailment is associated with inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis remains one of the most important health problems in the world. At the same time, as a new study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation showed, between 1990 and 2019, deaths from meningitis around the world among all age groups decreased by 56%, that is, more than one and a half times.

Between 1990 and 2019, deaths from meningitis worldwide among all age groups decreased by 56%

Children under the age of five are most at risk of developing meningitis, the study says. In this group in 2019, about 1.28 million cases of the disease and about 112 thousand deaths were registered.

Overall, age-standardized death rates from meningitis decreased from 7.5 per 100,000 residents in 1990 to 3.3 per 100,000 population in 2019. Among children under the age of 5, the mortality rate in 2019 was 16.9 per 100,000 population, compared with 45 per 100,000 people in 1990: thus, a fall of 62.3% was recorded. Among newborns, deaths from meningitis during the specified period decreased from 296.7 to 137.2 per 1000 000 people, which corresponds to a decrease of 53.8%.

The most common cause of fatal meningitis among all ages in 2019 was Streptococcus pneumoniae (18.1%). Next come Neisseria meningitidis (13.6%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (12.2%).^[1]

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