When is the ‘flu’ actually something more serious?

Two weeks ago, Hannah Gwilliam, a talented 19-year-old Art student from Pembrokeshire had just been accepted to study at Cardiff University. Last week, Hannah was ill from the ‘flu’. Hannah is now dead. Tragically, Hannah had not been suffering from the flu. Instead she had contracted bacterial Meningitis.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges (three protective layers that encase the brain and spinal cord), which is caused by either a viral or bacterial infection that reaches these layers from the blood. Although meningitis can afflict people of any age, there is a preponderance for the disease in both early life and early adulthood, making meningitis high in the psyche of student health. Due to the disease being so rapid in its progression and its ability to cause such devastating consequences, most medical practitioners treat any meningitis-like symptoms very seriously.

Approximately 7,500 people every year contract meningitis in the UK. Of these, 5,000 are viral cases which rarely cause any long term problems to the sufferer. On the other hand, the 2,500 bacterial meningitis cases (mainly caused by neisseria meningitidis) can potentially be fatal and indeed 10 per cent are. Of the remainder, another 15 per cent will suffer with some long-term disability from the disease (typically finger amputation, deafness, blindness or permanent intellectual impairment).

This is encouraging news because it means that only 8 per cent of meningitis cases have detrimental consequences. However, as Hannah’s case has hopefully exposed, the extreme rapidity of the disease’s progression in a healthy individual (only one week) demonstrates the potential danger of missing the signs of the disease.

To put it plainly, reporting any relevant symptoms to your GP really could just save your life. So what should you look for? Meningitis normally appears as a fever (like flu).
Patients also suffer from nausea, headaches, neck stiffness and an intolerance to light. If you have these symptoms, it is very important that you seek medical assistance as soon as is possible.

The rash that people associate with meningitis does not always occur, and its absence should not delay you seeking advice. However, if you do find a rash, which can be anywhere on the body, it will remain red if you push a glass tumbler on it. Joint pain can also be reported in some cases of meningitis.

And what is the treatment? For viral meningitis, sadly there is little. Instead you’ve got to just dig deep and ride the symptoms out. Thankfully the disease naturally regresses, although I can’t promise you’d enjoy the experience.

For the bacterial form however, hospitalisation is inevitable and necessary. The concept of treatment is very simple (antibiotics given intravenously should treat the infection). However, because of the very serious ramifications of the disease, close monitoring and early treatment matters. Sadly for Hannah, this treatment came too late.

Hannah’s death came very suddenly and stole the life and future aspirations of a young student. It is important, therefore, that from her death we learn the dangers of this potentially life-threatening condition, so that no other family, at the University of Warwick at least, suffers such a loss.