2023-11-26 10:49:19
“An unprecedented rebound“. The Pasteur Institute is sounding the alarm on an increase in cases of meningococcal meningitis, particularly since the cessation of health measures which were applied to get through the Covid crisis. These “cases of meningitis” are potentially dangerous, underlines the Institute to AFP.
To combat this risk, the agency is calling for an increase in vaccinations against meningitis, particularly among adolescents who are most affected.
“Person to person” contamination
The AFP emphasizes that this pathology is an “infection” of the envelopes which surround the brain and spinal cord. Meningococcal meningitis is of bacterial origin. Contamination spreads by passing from “person to person“during contact”narrow and extended“, specifies the Pasteur Institute.
You should know that one person in 10 – among adolescents this ratio drops to one person in 3 – carries meningococci. Except that in these people, very often, it is without symptoms.
What are the main symptoms?
How to detect meningococcal meningitis? The symptoms are as follows: very high fever, very painful headaches, vomiting, aches and stiffness in the neck, photosensitivity, red or purplish spots… As the Pasteur Institute reports, it It is important to be treated quickly because this disease can be fatal in just one day, in the worst cases, but also lead to irreversible disabilities such as amputation, deafness, cognitive disorders, etc.
In this announcement, the Pasteur Institute makes a link with the Covid crisis and in particular the barrier gestures put in place to avoid contact. Wearing a mask and social distancing have significantly slowed down respiratory infections. As proof, in 2020 and 2021, meningococcal meningitis contaminations fell by more than 75%. But unfortunately they started to rise again very quickly.
“Meningococcal meningitis experienced an unprecedented rebound in the fall of 2022, with today, in the fall of 2023, a number of cases higher than the period preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.summarizes Samy Taha, one of the authors of a study published last month in the Journal of Infection and Public Health, and researcher in the Invasive Bacterial Infections unit at the Pasteur Institute.
We even talk about levels “never reached“in France, pushing the Pasteur Institute to reconsider”the vaccination strategy“. It is a question for the scientist of targeting adolescent carriers without symptoms. Especially since the “peak” could not yet be reached. The Pasteur Institute fears a new increase due to a probable flu epidemic , considered as “a context favorable to the development of meningococcal bacteria“.
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