World Meningitis Day 2013: Keep Watching Ireland

I didn’t know until I heard from a friend in Irish Parenting Blogs Group on Facebook that there was a world meningitis day, 2013 will be it’s 5th year running.

To be honest I didn’t think Meningitis was still a big thing/risk because we have vaccines. Well I was very wrong so I’m writing this post we can all learn more about this disease.

Meningitis Research Foundation Ireland has launched “Meningitis: Keep Watching Ireland” with support from Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Limited to highlight to parents that even ithough you may have your child vaccinated against meningitis that does not mean they can’t contract it as there are different forms. This is something that I never knew and I am so glad for this campaign to have made me aware of this!!

The vaccine does not protect against all types of meningitis.
There are lots of different forms of meningitis so that is why we all need to be aware of the symptoms at all times.

Ireland has the highest incidence of meningococcal disease in Europe.
That is quite shocking for the small country we are

Meningitis can kill within 24 hours so you need to always be aware of the symptoms

Symptoms may appear in any order and some may not appear at all. They may include some or all of the
following

• Fever
• Vomiting
• Severe headache
• Painfully stiff neck
• Sensitivity to light
• Very sleepy
• Confusion
• Seizures
• Non blanching rash (doesn’t disappear under pressure)

Heres a video made by Meningitis Keep watching for their campaign. Head over to their Facebook Page where you can get more info and you can do a quiz to test your knowledge on meningitis.
Also if you want to join in the campaign and raise awareness you can help spread the word on Twitter using the hashtag #keepwatching

I hope someone has learned something new from this post I know I have

Yaz x