Meningitis alert: not only childhood, also adults and the elderly at risk

In the face of the ongoing Covid emergency, the other vaccines that prevent the onset of bacterial diseases must not be put in the background. Specialists affirm this, underlines Paolo Bonanni, professor of Hygiene at the University of Florence. “There was a significant decrease in coverage at the beginning of the pandemic, in spring 2020, especially for some vaccines in the smallest, such as those against measles, mumps, chicken pox and rubella, compared to the hexavalent vaccination which instead almost maintained the expected standard . But even for adolescents the administration of the vaccine against the papilloma virus has gone to peak: we are talking about prevention against invasive and deadly forms of cancer. So there are one or two cohorts of teenagers who are at risk of these types of cancers in the future, ”says Bonanni. A problem that is also confirmed in the vaccination of adults and the elderly, although there are no registers as precise as those in use for the pediatric age. The alarm especially concerns airborne diseases: “The containment measures, including the lockdown, have affected the reduction of respiratory viruses – underlines the hygienist – while we are now witnessing a significant recovery of rhinoviruses and respiratory syncytial virus. So it is not excluded that bacterial diseases such as meningitis and sepsis will also restart. ”A danger that specialists also point out due to the ongoing pandemic state, which is weighing heavily on the health system. It is therefore necessary to recover those who have remained behind in primary prevention, in order not to add criticalities to public health. The importance of prevention is therefore reiterated, on which clinicians and experts heard in the context of “Pre-Occupiamoci della meningitis” agree, an editorial project to raise awareness at national level on the risks associated with this pathology, conceived and promoted by the Group Adnkronos with the non-conditioning support of Gsk Italia. “We know that where there are rising respiratory viral diseases, often there are also increases in the incidence of bacterial infections – underlines Bonanni -. We are talking about menigococcal meningitis, but also pneumococcal infections, which must be prevented, both in children and in the elderly, categories in which the covers must be raised “. The consequence of the decline in carrier status in the last winter season “could have favored a greater susceptibility in the population. We do not know exactly, but seeing the rise of viral infections everything suggests that it can also happen in bacterial forms “. Particular attention should be paid to adolescents, according to the specialist,” because it is the age group at the maximum of the carrier status and risks the recrudescence of menigococcal meningitis and meningococcal sepsis “. Two infections whose lethality is higher than what happens in the pediatric age, since the arrival in hospital often occurs when they are already in a serious form, while for children access to the emergency room usually occurs earlier. It is therefore necessary “to increase the coverage with antimenigococcus B and the quadrivalent, ACWY, in early childhood and in the 12-18 range – highlights Bonanni -. It is also necessary to identify vaccination recipients based on their risk factor, determined by chronic diseases, but also by lifestyles that favor infections, such as alcohol abuse and active smoking. Elements that broaden the audience of recipients of vaccination against meningitis, the prevention of which in many cases is a lifesaver “. The invitation therefore extends not only to parents, but also to family members and caregivers of frail people. “Covid is not the only infectious problem to deal with, there are many infectious diseases that threaten our health. We have an ethical duty to cover the exposed population, be it infants, adolescents, the elderly and those at risk, especially when faced with pathologies that seem infrequent. In reality, the cases are greater than they seem, because we know that in the face of a diagnosed case there are 2-3 other unidentified cases, which can have a disabling or fatal outcome “.