Tonight, there is high community concern in Belmopan. One 9 year old boy is on life support at the KHMH after contracting meningitis, and another case - this one in a 5 year old boy - was confirmed today.
Here's what we know so far: first, they come from different schools and classes. The 9 year old is from United Evergreen Primary School, while the 5 year old is from St Ann's Anglican. They may have had contact at a daycare facility which they both go to after school. The 9 year old is in critical condition, while the 5 year old is stable and being treated. The Minister of Health is doing contact tracing for both children.
But, again, everThat's the theory tonight - as the Ministry of Health and Wellness stresses that this form of meningitis - while very serious - is not the most deadly form.
The Director of Public Health and Wellness had a Zoom press briefing today to tell us more about what they know right now:
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness
"This child became ill on Thursday of last week and eventually progressively got worse and was then taken to Karl Heusner where he remains in Karl Heusner at this point. So the initial signs and symptoms that the child exhibited were fever, headache and vomiting and irritability. He was agitated and the mother took him in for care and this was what was found. With United Evergreen, they had closed the classroom for 24 hours and did a full infection prevention and control procedure for the classroom."
"Early this morning we were notified of a second child who presented to Western Regional Hospital with similar symptoms, fever, headache and vomiting as well. The doctor who received this child in the early hours of this morning is a paediatrician at Western Region."
"She was aware of the other case and she swiftly started medication and did the medical management as per protocol. The second child, we do not have preliminary diagnosis at this point because we're waiting for certain tests to come back but because the symptoms are similar and because we can, we have a what we call an epidemiological link to the first child, we are treating at this point as a probable meningitis case. The second child is stable, he is well. The child doesn't have any fever at this point and is currently admitted. The school has already from, we got in contact early yesterday, have already notified parents in the class that if the child is ill, if you have any concerns to seek medical care early."
"We have asked for the class that the second child, that classroom that has been closed and they're doing their sanitation and the infection prevention control processes. Other than that, as I said, our team is there at the school today and they will be doing the mapping of who the close contacts are and they will be visiting these persons."
Jules Vasquez
"The index case, you will know the the condition of the child, but the child's prognosis is very grim. And so we will ask immediately how, if it is manageable, how did it reach that stage of being so it's a, he's in a serious condition."
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness
"When someone gets a certain, gets infected with a bacteria or virus, as you know, even in a household, you might have a cold going around, but somebody gets very sick. compared to someone else. So there are different factors that contribute to how and where you get from an infection."
"The hospital doctors, the paediatrician looking after his care, they're going into detail to see if there was perhaps if he had some risk factors or you know children might, maybe he had just gotten better from another infection."
"So there are many things that contribute to your immune response. So it's not anything to say that one person will definitely be very very ill and another won't. Meningitis on a whole is something that is a serious infection."
A serious infection, but again, bacterial meningitis is not what is known as Meningococcal disease - that is far more serious. Now, as the doctor said any form of meningitis sis serious and that's because it's an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
Dr Musa stressed that this type of meningitis is not highly contagious:
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness
"It is contagious like any other virus or any other bacteria, but it is not highly contagious. And for that reason in public health we have definitions of close contact or just general contacts. You do a circle to say the immediate family would be close contacts and then it expands outside of that."
"We also have to look at the timeframe of the last contact of the index case. So he was last at school and babysitter approximately seven days ago. I think last at school last Wednesday and last at the babysitter last Tuesday."
"So we know as well that usually with spread you would see persons getting ill within three to four days, but there is a bigger window as well. We've got to always ensure that we remind parents and we remind family that even if that 8 days has passed and your child had contact and becomes ill, that child might develop a cold or cough, but we still want you to seek care and to go and see your paediatrician to ensure that there is nothing else going on."
Jules Vasquez
"How should parents best guard themselves against, as has happened in the index case, which is having a child on a respirator at the KHMH. How do you avoid these outcomes?"
Dr. Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Health and Wellness
"Well, what we are doing at this point is that we are going to visit each family who has had contact with the index case and even with this second case, even though we don't have a definitive diagnosis, we're going with a team and we're discussing with the parents what they should look out for, high fever or fever with vomiting, headache, sensitivity to light. These are things that suggest that your meninges are irritated. So these are things that we would want the child to go in right away to see a paediatrician."
There had not been a case of meningitis reported in Belize for the past 10 years. We note that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is also consulting with the Centers for Disease Control.
