Meningitis frenzy
A primary school student's sudden death last week inspired widespread fear of a meningitis epidemic. Mona El-Nahhas investigates
Hundreds of people have crowded the medical centre at the Health Ministry-affiliated Vaccine Holding Company since 7 May, hoping to vaccinate their children against meningitis. The rush was catalysed by news reports that an 8-year-old student had died of the disease, although health officials confirmed that the cause of death was actually encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.
According to Ne'ma Rashad, who heads the ministry-affiliated centre, Ayman Ahmed Atalla of Ain Shams died on 4 May of encephalitis. Despite several subsequent Health Ministry statements denying that Atalla had died of meningitis, by 7 May, "hundreds of people were pouring into the centre", seeking a vaccine. "The scene was unbelievable," Rashad told Al-Ahram Weekly. "There was no room to move."
Rashad said the centre had vaccinated some 50,000 individuals since then, mostly children, who are considered most susceptible to the disease. Although the number of people seeking the vaccine had decreased since then, last Sunday the centre was still full of people waiting their turn.
"We came here because the vaccine is cheap and safe," said Amina Wassef, who had brought her 5-year-old son Mustafa in to be vaccinated. "Here, it costs LE24, while at other clinics, the price has gone as high as LE70, and you can't even guarantee whether or not it's still valid." At the centre, each parent was being given a sealed certificate showing that the vaccine was still valid.
It appeared as though Health Minister Mohamed Awad Tageddin's assertion -- at a parliamentary session on Saturday -- that Egypt is free of meningitis, had not really had its intended effect, at least not amongst the worried parents at the centre. "We don't believe the governmental statements," said Adel Mohamed, who had brought his daughter Sarah in to be vaccinated. "Even if it's a rumour, vaccinating our children won't hurt. At least, we'll be on the safe side."
In parliament, Tageddin had said that if "individual cases [of meningitis] do appear, the ministry would quickly manage to bring them under control". He also said it was unfortunate that an individual case -- like Atalla's -- which had nothing to do with the disease, would result in the spreading of rumours.
On 3 May, Atalla had come home from school with a serious fever, and was immediately taken to Abbasiya Fevers Hospital, where tests on samples from his spinal cord fluid revealed that he had encephalitis. The young boy died the following day, and the rumours began spreading immediately. The most common refrain was that "it was definitely meningitis, but the government is hiding it, because they are afraid it will hurt tourism."
Parents began keeping their children at home, afraid that schools were breeding ground for the disease. They also anxiously sought out the vaccine. Playing on people's concerns, some clinics began charging up to LE100. Others were providing vaccines that had already expired.
The Health Ministry itself -- while calmly urging people not to believe the rumours -- also took its own preventive measures. According to El-Said Ali 'Awn, the ministry's first under-secretary for preventive medicine, ministry medical teams were dispatched to schools to offer free vaccinations. "Although there was no urgent need to vaccinate the students, we took these measure to calm people down," he told the Weekly.
'Awn described meningitis as "an infectious bacterial inflammation that reaches the membranes enclosing the brain and the spinal cord, while with encephalitis, which is non-infectious, the inflammation only affects the brain."
Had Atalla contracted meningitis, 'Awn said, there would certainly have been more cases at his school. According to 'Awn, the symptoms of meningitis include fever, sore throat, headaches, and convulsions. Since the disease spreads through the respiratory system, people are advised to avoid enclosed and crowded places. If it is discovered at an early stage, 'Awn said, the disease is curable.
According to 'Awn, the ministry allocates more than LE80 million annually towards vaccinating students, pilgrims, prisoners, and central security forces against meningitis. "The vaccination campaign usually takes place in September, when the bacteria that causes the disease becomes active."
The Health Ministry also placed the blame for the recent rumours on the "vaccine mafias" that stood to gain from people's fears.
C a p t i o n : With tears and smiles children wait for their meningitis vaccination
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 22 - 28 May 2003 (Issue No. 639)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/639/eg9.htm