Meningococcemia in Davao claims life of 4 year-old boy

Meningococcemia in Davao claims life of 4 year-old boy
Meningococcemia in Davao claims the life of a 4-year-old boy (Image from Edge Davao) 

A four-year-old boy died because of meningococcemia in Davao City yesterday.

Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque confirmed the meningococcemia case in an interview.

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“It’s true. There’s a 4-year old boy who died of meningococcemia,” Duque said.

The boy was confined and died in Brokenshire Memorial Hospital which has verbally confirmed the case at the hospital on August 30, 2019.

According to reports, the child was not able to attend school from August 29-30 before his grandmother rushed him to Brokenshire.

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DOH said that they had done Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) to the people the child has close contact with. It includes family members, students from the boy’s school, and the hospital staff who closely attended to the patient.

“A team from the Department will visit and monitor the school to assist the teachers in proper information dissemination to the parents and ensure that everyone closely exposed to the deceased child will be given PEP,” DOH said.

Leap of Faith Learning Center, Inc. (LOFLC), the school where the deceased patient studied, said they will work closely with DOH and the Davao City Health Office (CHO).

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LOFLC also reminded its school community to get medical consultation “as soon as possible due to this medical emergency”.

Meningococcemia in Davao Scare

The disease was known to be highly contagious and fatal especially to children and the elderly. There has been a scare among Dabawenyos when the news broke that someone died of the disease.

However, the Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Inc. denied claims of a meningococcemia outbreak.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), meningococcemia is a rare infection caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria. This is the same type of bacteria that can cause meningitis.