According to news from the Hanoi Department of Health, the city has just recorded the first case of meningococcus in 2024.
That is the case of a male patient (22 years old, in Son Tay town), whose illness began on May 3 with symptoms of sore throat, poor appetite, fever, and chills.
On May 5, the patient had a full-body convulsion, lasting 1-2 minutes, losing consciousness and having urinary incontinence. The patient was transferred to Military Hospital 105, diagnosed with encephalitis, meningitis has not been ruled out, and received oxygen, anticonvulsants, and antibiotics.
xAfterwards, the patient was transferred to Military Hospital 103 with a high fever of 39 degrees, drowsiness, stiff neck… Realtime PCR testing of the patient’s cerebrospinal fluid, blood and throat mucus showed positive results for the brain. meningococcus.
According to medical experts, meningococcus appears all year round, occurs in all ages, and can break out into epidemics in crowded places such as barracks, student dormitories, schools, kindergartens, etc. factories, offices…
This disease is ranked as one of the 10 infectious diseases with the highest mortality rate in Vietnam with cases recorded every year. The disease is dangerous and causes rapid death within just 24 hours from the onset of the first symptoms. In addition, 2 out of 10 people with the disease will experience sequelae such as paralysis, deafness, intellectual disability…
The World Health Organization (WHO) statistics that each year the world has about 1.2 million cases of meningococcal meningitis, about 50% of meningococcal patients will die if not treated promptly. time.
The cost of treating a case of meningococcal disease is also very expensive, can reach billions of dong and requires the use of a lot of equipment and human resources, not to mention the burden of future care for disabled patients.
There are currently 13 meningococcal serogroups that cause disease, including the 6 most common and dangerous serogroups (A, B, C, Y, W-135, X).
Doctor Bach Thi Chinh, Medical Director of VNVC Vaccination System, said that Vietnam has vaccines to fully prevent 5 groups of high-risk meningococcal bacteria that cause disease, including: Group meningococcal vaccine New generation B (Bexsero) from Italy, group BC (Mengoc BC) from Cuba and groups A, C, Y, W-135 (Menactra) from the US.
Currently, VNVC is also the first vaccination system in Vietnam to have the new generation group B meningococcal vaccine Bexsero and is the only vaccination system to have all 3 types of meningococcal B and BC vaccines. , ACYW-135 is administered to children from 2 months old to adults 55 years old.
“Meningococcal vaccines do not have cross-protection immunity, so children and adults need to be vaccinated early and fully with vaccines against the 5 serogroups that cause the disease mentioned above without delay or only vaccination with 1 type of this disease. Ignore other types,” Dr. Bach Thi Chinh noted.