NAGA CITY — A suspected case of meningococcemia that afflicted a Grade 3 pupil of a Catholic school here has caused panic among parents who pulled out their children from their classes on Monday.
The female pupil, who did not show any symptom of the bacterial infection on Friday (June 24) while attending classes, was taken to the Naga Imaging Center Cooperative (NICC) Doctors Hospital on Saturday morning after she vomited.
The girl, however, died three hours after she was taken to the hospital.
Dr. Joey Rañola, infectious diseases specialist of the NICC, said a blood or spinal fluid culture should be done to confirm if the 8-year-old girl was infected with meningococcemia.
Rañola said it would take about a week before tests could confirm if the girl died of meningococcemia.
Meningococcemia assumes the ordinary symptoms of fever or flu, making it hard to diagnose the disease, according to Rañola.
Rañola said a patient with meningococcemia would most likely experience fever and vomiting, and exhibit rashes.
The patient, he said, would die within 24 hours. He said the infection would be brought around the body through blood circulation, making the disease fatal.
But Rañola said meningococcemia, not being airborne, should not create panic among parents and could only infect other people through direct contact with the ill person.
The girl was cremated Sunday.
More than 100 parents went to the school on Monday morning and told its principal that they would pull out their children from their classes. The parents said they were alarmed by a report on the girl’s death broadcast by local radio station dwNX.
A father of a Grade 4 pupil said while he was aware that meningococcemia could only be transferred through direct contact with the patient, he chose to fetch his son from school because he wanted to ensure his safety.
A school official acknowledged the concern of parents after the news broke out on the radio.
The official said school personnel fumigated the school on Sunday and sanitized classrooms and avoided using air conditioning units until Monday.
The school director ordered the suspension of classes on Monday afternoon and has announced that classes will resume on Tuesday (June 28).
The official said the teacher and classmates of the dead pupil had been given antibiotics as a precautionary measure. Their health condition is also being monitored.
Dr. Vito Borja, Naga City health officer, visited the school and advised its officials to continue observing the condition of the teacher and classmates of the girl.
Borja has told school officials that the incubation period for meningococcemia is two to 10 days. SFM