The HCM City Preventive Medicine Centre today confirmed the first fatality caused by meningitis since the beginning of this year.

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High fever, stiff neck and rashes are meningitis symptoms. Parents must bring their children to hospital right after diagnosing these symptoms. — Photo infonet.vn


The victim was a five-month-old girl residing in District 11.

Earlier, she was admitted to HCM City’s Tropical Diseases Hospital with a high fever, nausea, rashes and diagnosed with a blood infection.

Tests showed that the girl was infected with the Neisseria meningitis bacterium.

She died hours after being sent to the hospital.

Nguyen Tri Dung, director of HCM City Preventive Medicine Centre, said that the centre was taking measures to curb the disease’s spread.

According to the Ministry of Health, meningitis cases have been detected across several cities and provinces such as Hanoi, HCM City, Son La, Hoa Binh and Gia Lai, besides Nam Dinh and Lang Son provinces, including a death in Hai Duong Province in February this year.

Health experts said the meningococcal disease spreads by person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets from infected victims. Symptoms include stiff neck, high fever and rashes. The onset of symptoms is sudden and death can follow within 24 hours.

People can take children to medical stations to get them vaccinated against meningitis.

VNS