Doctors spoke about uncharacteristic symptoms of meningitis

In 15 cases out of 100 it ends fatally

Russians, parents of children under 6 years of age or expecting a new addition to the family, know almost nothing about the symptoms of meningitis – this was shown by a survey conducted from February 28 to March 15, 2024. According to it, only 2.8% of respondents are fully informed about the nature of the disease and its consequences. Meanwhile, this childhood infection has an extremely high mortality rate. “15 out of 100 sick people, and according to some data, every fifth patient, die. 20% of survivors have long-term complications, manifested in the form of hearing and vision loss, neurological disorders, cognitive and other impairments,” said today Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, President of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Children’s Scientific and Clinical Center for Infectious Diseases of the FMBA” Yuri Lobzin at the round table organized by the All-Russian Patients’ Union.

According to the survey, 11.2% of young parents know nothing at all about meningitis. 5.2% believe in myths about the disease that are unrelated to reality – for example, that you can get it if you walk without a hat. The knowledge of the majority (80.8%) is very fragmentary. 53% of respondents are aware of the possibility of serious complications after meningitis, and 30.4% are aware of the high mortality of the disease.

Today, meningococcal infection is in second place in the structure of overall child mortality after community-acquired pneumonia and is the number one infection that kills children. Meningococcal infection develops rapidly and can be fatal within a matter of hours. The high-risk group includes the youngest, infants and children under 5 years of age.

The acute form of meningococcal meningitis (inflammatory damage to the meninges) occurs at lightning speed: with an increase to 39 and 40 degrees, which can be accompanied by vomiting, headache and rash throughout the body. Very often, young children with this diagnosis die within 24 hours. According to the head of the research department of intensive care of emergency conditions of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “DNKCIB FMBA” Alla Vilnits, death in the first 24 hours from the onset of the generalized form of meningococcal infection is recorded in more than 60% of cases. Treatment for such a diagnosis requires high-tech equipment, expensive medications and consumables, not to mention qualified personnel consisting of a whole council of specialists. But even if all this exists and the child can be saved, this in no way guarantees the prevention of disability. The consequences of the disease are extremely severe – physical, neurological, psychological.

Meningitis does not develop because someone walked in the cold without a hat. As Alla Vilnits says, purulent meningitis becomes a manifestation of a severe form of neuroinfection: “It is characterized by a combination of inflammation in the membranes of the brain and severe extracranial manifestations. In many cases it occurs with manifestations of sepsis. In children, it is not always possible to detect the classic manifestations of meningitis, and the main symptoms often resemble the onset of an intestinal or respiratory infection. Sometimes children are admitted to surgical hospitals with complaints of abdominal pain. Such nonspecific initial symptoms make clinical diagnosis difficult, and therefore the diagnosis is made when the child is already in a very serious condition,” says the expert.

As an example, they cited the story of 5-year-old Evelina Savchenko from St. Petersburg: at first the child complained of chills. The mother measured the temperature, and it was under 40. The ambulance arrived and diagnosed the child with a sore throat. The girl was diagnosed with meningococcal infection only at the 2nd Infectious Diseases Hospital in Moscow, but it was not possible to save her.

Meningitis, meanwhile, is a vaccine-preventable infection, but vaccination against meningococcus is not yet in the Russian National Calendar (it will appear only in 2025). “The document already contains vaccines against pneumococcal and hemophilus influenzae infections, but there is no vaccination against meningococcus yet, although this infection is the main cause of generalizing meningitis,” says Oleg Almendeev, project director of the All-Russian Patients’ Union.

At the same time, according to Rospotrebnadzor, in 2022 the incidence of the generalized form of meningococcal infection has doubled (!) compared to the previous year. And in January-May 2023, the incidence of meningococcal infection increased by another 16% (compared to the same period in 2022). According to the co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Patients, Yan Vlasov, it is necessary to initiate new research and search for innovative methods of prevention, detection and treatment of meningitis of various etiologies and improve the quality of rehabilitation care for patients who have suffered from the disease.