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Bacterial Meningitis
November 12, 2007
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It’s a bacterial disease that kills about 3,000 Americans a year. But it also targets
a population that doesn’t seem to know much about it. When asked about bacterial
meningitis student, Chase Walker says,
“I don’t really know much about this meningitis
but I thought it was only something old people got.”
Dr. Robert Schwartz is an infectious diseases specialist with Lee Physician group.
He says, “The kind of bacterial meningitis we see affects 18, 19, 17-year olds sometimes
at Army recruitment camp sometimes at universities.
Bacterial meningitis is an infection or inflammation of the lining around the brain
and spinal column. While it’s not extremely common among teens physicians say it
should still be a concern.
“Most children come in contact with many bacterial infections by the time they’re
17 or 18 some of which provide protection against this meningitis. That’s why 90
percent of the kids who go to universities don’t get sick with it. But the ten percent
are acutely vulnerable to it. So it is as important as can be to get the vaccine
to try and prevent it,” says Dr. Schwartz.
If you have not been vaccinated for meningitis, physicians say treating the symptoms
early can be a matter of life and death.
Dr. Schwartz says those symptoms include, “a rose colored rash sometimes on the
abdomen, a stiff neck, high fever. It comes very quickly and needs to be treated very quickly. If they’re having fever and a stiff neck do not pass go, go directly
to the ER.”
If you want your child to get the meningitis vaccine it should be a simple process. Most physicians readily offer the shot.
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