When Wu Hao, a junior high student, left hospital on Wednesday,
he was the second person to recover from type C meningitis in the
outbreak near Dongtai, a city in east China's Jiangsu
Province.
The remaining four are in a stable condition and are expected to
recover in the next few days, said He Qing, director of the local
hospital.
Between January 21 and 26, six children from a junior high
school in Tangyang, 50 km from Dongtai, came down with symptoms
including fever, vomiting and stiff necks.
After being diagnosed, the six were quarantined and treated by
doctors and experts sent from Dongtai. The school was disinfected
and all the students and teachers vaccinated.
Wang Zhongze, deputy director of Dongtai's disease prevention
and control center, said that thanks to effective prevention
measures, by Wednesday a week had passed with no new reported
cases.
No new cases have also been reported for 10 straight days in
Wuhu City, in the neighboring province of Anhui.
All the patients there have recovered, with the last one leaving
hospital the same day as Wu Hao.
According to Yang Xiaoxiang, director of the city's disease
prevention and control center, more than 130,000 locals have been
immunized so far.
Sources from Anhui Provincial Health Department said?on
Thursday?that the province's outbreak has been brought under
control with five people still in recovery and in a stable
condition.
Since December 20, 62 people with meningitis have been reported
in Anhui, six of whom have died and 51 recovered.
Meningitis is an inflammation of membranes surrounding the brain
and spinal cord, and can have a number of different causes,
including both bacteria and viruses. Symptoms include fever,
vomiting and intense headache, and some forms of bacterial
meningitis (including type C) are contagious through close contact
via respiratory secretions.
Official sources said that type C meningitis was first reported
in Anhui in September 2003, in the eastern county of Qingyang.
Previous outbreaks were usually caused by type A bacteria.
Teenagers aged 13 to 18 years are the major group affected by
the epidemic. Seventy-seven percent of patients in Anhui are
elementary or middle school children.
Meningitis infections are not uncommon in Anhui, and usually
peak in spring and winter. It can be cured and prevented from
spreading with effective controls, said Gao Kaiyan, director of the
Provincial Health Department.
(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2005)