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Ministry’s warning against meningitis

DUBAI — The Ministry of Health (MoH) has asked people to exercise caution after two confirmed and three suspected cases of meningitis were reported in Dubai last week.

Implementing an emergency plan, health authorities have urged parents to seek immediate medical attention if their children show any symptom of meningitis. They have also alerted all hospitals in the Emirates.

All the five cases were reported from a building in Deira. Among them were four children, aged between five and seven, and a woman.

The rest of the 220 residents of the building, both adults and children, had been vaccinated immediately after the meningitis cases were detected. Among those vaccinated with type A vaccine were 54 children, below seven years of age.

Addressing the Press at the MoH yesterday, Dr Mariam Mattar, Assistant Under-Secretary for Public Health and Primary Healthcare, said on January 31 a boy was admitted to Al Baraha Hospital with fever, vomiting tendencies and headache.

On February 1, his sister was also admitted to the hospital complaining of the same symptoms.

“The doctors carried out some tests which showed negative results as too many antibiotics had been administered to the children. The infected children are Indian nationals,” said Dr Mattar.

“Laboratory investigations showed that the children were suffering from bacterial meningitis, though the right type is yet to be identified,” she explained, adding that two more children from the same building with the same symptoms had also been hospitalised.

“The mother of one of the children was also showing the same symptoms, though the tests did not confirm the disease,” added Dr Mattar.