A mother whose young daughter sadly died from meningitis is urging parents to recognise the signs.
It comes as the HSE is investigating three confirmed cases, where two young people have died from meningococcal meningitis/septicaemia since late September.
Consultant microbiologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dr Sinéad O’Donnell, and CEO of ACT for Meningitis Siobhan Carroll, featured on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, to raise awareness and discuss the signs and symptoms of meningitis.
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Dr O’Donnell told the show, “This is not an outbreak, these are sporadic cases, the cases not connected,”
“It is always a concern when we see young people having a meningococcal infection and very sadly, loss of life.”
The key to preventing further cases was for people to be aware of the signs and symptoms of meningitis, which unfortunately can be confused with other symptoms like the flu, people being stressed or even a hangover.
Dr O’ Donnell added: “The very early signs can be quite non-specific, but the signs of meningitis and septicaemia that you need to be looking out for - headache, stiff neck, bright lights, muscle pain and in the case of septicaemia, a rash. But the rash does not always happen, meningitis can happen without the rash so you need to be very vigilant in looking for the other symptoms and not waiting for the rash.”
ACT for Meningitis Chief Executive, Siobhan Carroll spoke to Morning Ireland, urging concerned parents to watch out for the signs.
Siobhan gave insight into her own experience, and discussed the night her own daughter, Ava, 4, began to display symptoms of Meningitis and died from it.
Ms Carroll set up the charity ACT for Meningitis after the death of Aoibhe in 2011 within six hours of falling ill.
Siobhan was feeling ill herself at the time she was pregnant, and went into the hospital for a check up, and received a call from her husband later that night about her daughter’s condition.
Siobhan had been chatting to Aoibhe only hours before, and said: “I had spoke to Aoibhe that day, and she had gone to Montessori, I spoke to them at 9 o’clock that night, I told them that I loved them, a few hours later I got a call from their dad Noel, to say Aoibhe wasn’t feeling herself, that she was sick with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Ms O’Carroll said: “As the night progressed, she became more unwell, her dad rang the out of hours service, he told them the symptoms, and said he was concerned.
The out of hours service advised him to check if bright lights bothered her, and to keep an eye on her.
Noel rang Siobhan to say that Aoibhe had slowly closed her eyes as he brought her down the stairs, and an ambulance was on the way, he told Siobhan: “It’s not good, Siobhan.”
“As we stood in A&E, we saw the consultant, and a priest walked towards us and said, ‘we’re really sorry your little girl is gone.”
“From six hours of being sick Aoibhe had passed away from Meningitis, it was the speed of Meningitis that cannot be put into words, the speed at which your life can change.”
Siobhan’s message urges parents to learn the symptoms, and said: “Make yourselves aware of the signs and symptoms of Meningitis, with it symptoms can appear in any order, or may not appear at all, trust your instincts, you know your child, if you're concerned, get medical attention.”
Dr Sinead O'Donnell had her own experience with the illness, and contracted meningitis at the age of 19.
Sinead said she went from feeling unwell to being on life support in the space of 11 hours.
She told Morning Ireland, “It is incredibly rapid. I would not be here today if it were not for my friends checking on me, trusting their instincts that there was something wrong. I could not have done that for myself.
“This is not something that you can deal with at home, it is also something that is very treatable with antibiotics, it is not a resistant organism, it just means you have to get to a hospital, get lots of antibiotics on board quickly. We're in a very different situation now than we were in the 90s when this was more usual.
Dr O’Donnell added: “Now we have very effective vaccines. Be up to date with vaccines, recognise the signs and symptoms, and act if they have a suspicion that this person might have meningitis.”
You can find more information on signs and symptoms here
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