A German family who spent their holidays on the island, has lost their two-year-old son as a result of a meningitis. The family recognized the health officials who treated the child, who the boy had not been vaccinated. The child began to have symptoms of high fevers y rashes. Inflammation of the meninges caused a heart attack impossible to reverse by the medical services of the hospital center in the south of the island.
La meningitis It is an inflammation of the membranes (meninges) that surround the brain and spinal cord. In general, the inflammation of meningitis causes symptoms such as headache, fever and stiff neck. In the 80% of cases, this disease is caused by a virus and in the 20% arise by bacteria. It is a rare but potentially lethal disease that can damage the brain and injury of many organs, besides being highly contagious.
In the last 40 years the vaccines have been implanted against practically all types of meningitis with incidence in Western Europe. In Spain, the vaccination against HiB was implemented in the 80 calendar. In the 2000 year there was a great epidemic that forced to include the vaccine against the MenC, and as for the pneumococcus, after being available in pharmacies for a few years, finally in 2014 the agreement was reached to implant the vaccine in calendar of all the CCAA.
Canary Islands in this sense, It has been the first Autonomous Community to include the bexsero in its vaccination calendar. An initiative that has been supported by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP). The Association has been requesting the entry of this vaccine into public funding for a long time, and it is expected that the rest of the communities will join this initiative.
