Posted 23rd Apr 2009
Miami-Dade health officials said Thursday that they're ''stumped'' in efforts to understand the cause and course of 12 cases of a rare, virulent form of meningitis that has killed four people in South Florida since December.
Miami-Dade health officials said Thursday that they're ''stumped'' in efforts to understand the cause and course of 12 cases of a rare, virulent form of meningitis that has killed four people in South Florida since December.
The strain, W135, makes up only about 3 percent of cases worldwide. It's unusual to have so many in one grouping here, said Dr. Vincent Conte, senior physician at the Miami-Dade Health Department.
''There doesn't seem to be any pattern,'' he said. ``We have cases in North Dade, South Dade, East Dade and West Dade. There's no real cluster. It's everywhere.''
The strain is surprising, Conte said. ``There have been scattered outbreaks around the world over the past few years, but so far in the U.S. we're the first location where there has been a cluster.''
Conte said the county is working with epidemiologists from the state Department of Health to investigate the infections. Experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also monitoring the situation, but the outbreak has not yet reached a level at which the CDC would send experts to South Florida.
At a hastily called news conference Wednesday, county health officials first disclosed the incidences of the disease and advised that anyone with symptoms -- severe headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck -- see a doctor immediately or visit emergency rooms if they can't see their own doctor the same day.
Conte said the health department has sent health advisories to doctors and hospitals around South Florida warning them to watch out for patients with those symptoms as well.
''We've had quite a few calls from residents and from doctors,'' he said. No new cases have surfaced since Wednesday.
Conte said people worried about meningitis can get a vaccine, called MCV4, that protects against the W135 strain. It's a vaccination routinely recommended by the CDC for youths reaching the age of 11 or 12. But it's not required for public school attendance, so he didn't know what percentage of South Florida children have taken it.
The vaccination protects adults as well, he said. It takes about a week after the shot for the body to create antibodies against the disease, he said.
He recommended it particularly for college students, military recruits and others living or working in crowded situations. The disease is spread by kissing, coughing and touching surfaces touched by those who are infected.
It's not the same vaccination as the Hib meningitis shot that is required for entrance to kindergarten in public schools, he said. That shot does not protect against this strain of meningitis, he said.
A British website, thisisnottingham.co.uk, identified one of the people who had died as Jade Thomas, a school teacher from Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
The story said she died of meningitis while on vacation in Florida to celebrate her 26th birthday.
A Facebook group, R.I.P. Jade Thomas, has more than 1,000 members.
Another website set up in her memory -- jade.thomas.gonetoosoon.org -- lists her cause of death as meningitis.
The site reads: ''Jade died on 7th April 09, of Meningitis septicaemia in Miami in the place where she wanted to be! She had planned the holiday for the last year and the last entry in her journal was ``I LOVE MIAMI BABY'' she was living her dream.''
According to the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office, Thomas, 26, died in the emergency room at Mt. Sinai Hospital on April 7. Her body was brought to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy. Her cause of death has not yet been determined, according to the medical examiner's office.
Meningitis is an infection of the fluid of a person's spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain. The bacterial illness is contagious through coughing, kissing, sharing drinking utensils or touching surfaces an infected person has touched. Precautions include avoiding those who are infected, washing hands and cleaning home surfaces. People with colds should cough into tissues or into the insides of their elbows, officials said.
» See Also: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1014168.html
