menigitis in berlin

[sweetieberlin]

ok, so I am probably jumping the gun, but Im scared of menigitis..

a 19 year old girl just died, and now a baby is sick...we live in berlin..should I be worried? please tell me more about the illness...

thanks

wanted to add its Neisseria meningitidis thats going around

[Gitti]

Meningitis can't be going around.
Meningitis is a symptom. It is a swelling of part of the brain due to some illness.

The kids who are vaccinated for meningitis (which covers some of the bacteria that are the most likely to have been the cause) get meningitis from other bacteria which come in and take the place and they can be much worse.

The vaccine has not brought the total cases of meningitis down. Quite the opposite.


http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/...gate-vaccines/

Be sure and read part II and III as well.

[sweetieberlin]

sorry I am not good with terms and such, to realise that meningitis isnt an actual passable thing...

that being said, I dont agree with it being a symptom.. It is an infection.

http://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/bacterial/faqs.htm

Meningitis is an infection of the fluid of a person's spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain.

and the bacteria that causes it can be spread.. I may not be informed enough about it, thats why I was asking...

[Gitti]

nm

[Emmeline II]

[quote]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meningitis/DS00118
Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes (meninges) and cerebrospinal fluid surrounding your brain and spinal cord, usually due to the spread of an infection

(bold not intended)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/000680.htm
The most common causes of meningitis are viral infections that usually resolve without treatment. However, bacterial infections of the meninges are extremely serious illnesses, and may result in death or brain damage even if treated.

Meningitis is also caused by fungi, chemical irritation, drug allergies, and tumors.[/QUOTE]

Meningitis is a condition, not a disease. You cannot "catch" meningitis; bacterial meningitis occurs when your immune system cannot keep a normally harmless bacteria in check. Any bacteria can become meningitis. There are probably many people in your area with that particular bacteria living happily in the backs of their throats but do not develop meningitis because they have a stronger immune system at present.

[In Exile]

Okay, I just read this article.

http://de.news.yahoo.com/17/20081024...n-3f611bb.html

The girl that died-came from Switzerland. A guy was just released as "healed" from the Hospital. The Baby is doing better and they are not fearing for it's life, on the way to getting better.

The article is pretty matter of fact-no panic. They don't mention the baby's age, vax status, anything. 9 people who could have had contact with the baby were preemptively treated with antibiotics.

None of the sick had contact among each other.

I really would not be too worried. Berlin (there is an official number of people living there-and an unofficial number) has it's fair share of infectious disease, sometimes meningitis and sometimes weird things like Malaria (not infectious- I just mentioned it among the colourful disease you find on ocassion), people coming back travelling. Every once in a while you hear something like yellow fever, but in my 20 years of living there-don't worry too much.

Do you read and speak German?
Wiki has an excellent article on Neisseria, much better than the english one.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neisseria

[Gitti]

There is no mention of any one's vaccine status and that makes me believe that they were all vaccinated with the "appropriate" vaccine.

[In Exile]

Originally Posted by Gitti

There is no mention of any one's vaccine status and that makes me believe that they were all vaccinated with the "appropriate" vaccine.

I am sure that the would have mentioned the unvaxed status of the sick baby, if the baby was indeed unvaxed. But on the other hand, they don't even mention the baby's age-so it could be that the baby was way to young to even have received it-or as Gitti says, was vaxed and still got sick.