Boy, 4, dies of meningococcemia in Marikina hospital

MANILA, Philippines - A four-year-old boy from Montalban, Rizal died of meningococcemia at the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center in Marikina City Monday night, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

The boy was rushed to the hospital at around 3 p.m. Monday and died six hours later, said Dr. Manuel Mapue, head of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of the DOH-National Capital Region.

“The boy became ill three days before he was brought to the hospital. Our counterparts in the DOH Region 4-A have been tracing those who came in contact with the patient,” he said in a telephone interview.

The website of Atlanta-based Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) stated that the disease is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis.

The CDC said about 10 percent of people are carriers of the bacterium, which can sometimes invade the body and cause illnesses such as meningococcemia.

The symptoms of the illness, spread through respiratory and throat secretions, appear within a week after exposure.

Mapue claimed the disease is highly transmissible among people living in close or small quarters and those with a weak immune system.

Marikina City health officer Dr. Alberto Herrera said the hospital isolated the boy from other patients and, after the boy’s death, disinfected the hospital, particularly the emergency room and the x-ray room where the boy was confined.

“Prophylaxis was also given to the staff and the family who were exposed to the patient with meningococcemia,” he said. – With Non Alquitran