Shock diagnosis: girl comes with head and stomach pain in the clinic – then it is dead

Four-year-old complains of stomach aches and headaches, and dies after a few days

In the UK, a four year old girl who complained of abdominal pain and headache died just a few days after the delivery in a hospital. The Doctors found that it had infected the child with meningococcal type B.

Girl was only four years old

In England, a four-year-old girl died of a meningococcal infection. The child had only been a few days earlier with relatively innocuous symptoms in a hospital. If the little Evie would be something to come later on the world, could life possibly because children in the UK are vaccinated since 2015 meningococcal.

It started with harmless symptoms,

As the English newspaper “Daily Mail” reported, began the tragedy so that the four-year-old Evie, from Radcliffe, near Manchester, wanted to one Morning at a friend’s house for Breakfast.

“You said you have a headache,” said her mother, Courtney, who brought her daughter, then home. “As we got out of the car, she said, she had Years of stomach pain,” the 20 -.

“I brought you into the house, and their temperature measured. The was at 40.1 ° C.“, The young mother immediately alerted to the emergency, and an ambulance brought the girl and her worried mother to the Manchester Children’s Hospital.

On the way there, the girl had seizures, as at home, again and again, spasm. Moreover, her pupils were enormous.

In the hospital, Doctors quickly discovered that the four-year-old was diagnosed with a meningococcal infection. A CT scan showed that the disease had already caused brain damage, which is why the child into an artificial coma, was transferred.

But Evie did not recover and died only a few days after admission to the clinic.

Transmission by droplet infection

Meningococcal bacteria that colonize in the nose and throat of the people, and according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in about ten percent of the population without persistent clinical symptoms are detectable.

Be transferred to you, the most common droplet infection. The bacteria enter while Talking, coughing or Sneezing in small droplets from the nose and throat into the air and can be inhaled from a short distance.

In addition, the pathogen can also be transmitted in close contact with the Diseased as a smear infection, for example, by touching the nasal secretions. Outside the body, the bacteria die off quickly.

Various Forms

According to health experts, two forms of the meningococcal disease can occur disease individually or in combination:

“Meningococcal diseases run in about two-thirds of the cases, Meningitis. In about one third of the cases, the course is characterized by Sepsis,“ writes the RKI on his website.

The disease onset is usually very sudden and rapidly progressing.

When symptoms get to the hospital quickly

In the case of an infection can lead to symptoms such as headaches, neck stiffness, or Nausea.

Other symptoms of meningitis fever, sensitivity to light, chills, and a clouded state of Consciousness, such as, for example, a strong drowsiness or dizziness.

A meningococcal infection can develop. Most often it meets, however, infants in the first year of life, toddlers or teenagers.

“The incubation period is usually 3 to 4 days, you can, however, also lie between 2 and 10 days”, says the RKI.

Already in the case of suspected meningococcal infection Ill have to go to the hospital immediately! The infection is treated with antibiotics. For some years, a vaccine against the deadly disease.

Vaccines available

There are several meningococcal types. In Germany, Serogroups B and C are the most common.

Against all five of the country’s common Serogroups – A, B, C, W135 and Y vaccines are available. The Standing Committee on vaccination (STIKO) recommends vaccination against meningococcal C from the twelfth month of life.

People with reduced immune function, or close contact to a meningococcal Diseased, the STIKO recommends, in addition, a vaccination against the serogroup B. A General recommendation is currently.

Vaccination could save your life

The vaccine would possibly can even save the little Evie’s life. However, the girl that had been infected with meningococcal type B, was born prior to 2015, the year in the UK, vaccination against the infection has been introduced.

Her mother now wants to educate other parents. “I’m 20 years old and I have never heard of meningococcal type B,” said the young woman.

“I want to make sure that people know about it. I thought a rash would normally be a sign of Meningitis. But eight out of ten people get a rash.“

A little bit of consolation, the mother experienced at the thought of the death of her daughter, has saved another child’s life.

Because a three-year-old girl received her heart in a life-saving transplant. (ad)