LEGAZPI CITY—A 4-year-old girl suspected to be ill of meningococcemia died on Friday at Bulan Municipal Hospital in Bulan, Sorsogon, 124 kilometers from this city, a top official of the Department of Health (DOH) in Bicol said.
The girl from Barangay Bical, Bulan, was admitted to the hospital on Thursday for fever and rashes, Gloria Balboa, DOH regional director, said in a text message.
Balboa said the girl was suspected of having meningococcemia.
She said fever, headache, vomiting, difficulty in breathing and bluish rashes were symptoms of the highly contagious disease.
But Balboa said blood samples from the girl would be tested.
As a preventive measure, however, Balboa said the rural health unit in Bulan was trying to find out whom the girl came in contact with in her village.
She dismissed an earlier report that staffers of the Bulan hospital, who got in contact with the girl, were quarantined, saying that “the hospital staff was given prophylaxis and not quarantined.”
Balboa said the girl was buried at 6 a.m. on Saturday at the town cemetery, with the town sanitary inspector supervising the burial.
As a standard practice, a casualty of meningo should be buried in 24 hours to prevent the spread of the disease.
Meningococcemia is an acute and potentially life-threatening infection of the bloodstream caused by a bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis.