Dreadful,life threatening and infectious pneumococcal meningitis disease hits Ghana taking 93 lives so far since last year.
Pnuemococcal meningitis, caused by the streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria affects the lungs and is easily spread through coughing,sneezing and a prolong body contact to an infected person.
Also living in a crowded setting ,intimate kissing and eating from the same bowl or drinking from the same cup to an infected person can equally help spread the disease causing bacteria.
Babies and children in most cases stands the higher risk in acquiring the disease at the early stages of their lives,mostly under 18 months.
The disease have close to about two to ten days to come out with its symptoms which includes neck pains, neck stiffness, convulsion and vomiting.
Seasonal reports on pnuemococcal meningitis in Ghana usually comes during the dry season from October to March with the worst affected regions being the Ashanti, Central,Brong Ahafo and Northern region due to its relatively low humidity and abundance of dust. As a thorough autopsy even revealed that as a result of the aforementioned disease , 4 students of the Kumasi Academy Senior High in the Ashanti region died this year.
People under these conditions are at a higher risk since it damages their immune system.
Marylin Amediwa, a nursing student at the Pentecost University when interviewed on the worrying disease, disclosed the attack of pnuemococcal meningitis possesses the same symptoms as malaria and fever.
Sounding a word of caution to Ghanaians to refrain from self medication.The interesting gist about the disease is that, an infected person stands the chance of receiving early treatment with the prescribe antibiotics should the victim consult the hospital on time when signals of symptom shows.
Source: GhanaWeb
