What every parent needs to know about meningitis

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Sunday afternoon, Feb. 28, 2001, marked the end of a busy weekend for the Verbakel family of London, Ont.

There had been hockey games, a birthday party, Sunday school and playing with pals, so Lisa Verbakel wasn't surprised when her son Kyle, then 7, wanted to lie down in the afternoon. His older brother, Derek, 11, had just recovered from the flu. Kyle, she figured, was next in line.

Lisa dispensed a little TLC and, after dinner, tucked herself in beside a sleeping Kyle, a comforting custom when her kids are sick. By morning Kyle would be better.

But Lisa never got to sleep that night. And Kyle was anything but better in the morning.

By midnight he was vomiting every half-hour. When his fever spiked past 40 C, Lisa rushed him to the nearest hospital. The diagnosis? A virus. Strange rashes on his elbow and wrist were dismissed as badges of courage from a hockey game or a brotherly tussle.

Back home by 2:30 a.m., Kyle slept fitfully. Lisa didn't sleep at all. By 4 a.m. bruises had developed on her son's right hand. Shortly after that, Kyle complained that his fingers had "frostbite." His wrists were burning hot, his fingertips freezing cold, and dark red, purplish, almost black splotches had spread to his right palm.

Although doctors had cleared her son only hours earlier, Lisa gave in to her "gut instinct" that something was very wrong and this time took him to the more-specialized Children's Hospital of Western Ontario in London. Within five minutes doctors had done blood work and hooked Kyle up to an IV. As Lisa watched them start blood transfusions, she knew that her gut feeling had been right: her son was indeed very, very ill. Deterioration was rapid; within hours he suffered two cardiac arrests.

The little boy playing with some friends Sunday afternoon was on life support before dawn Monday morning with meningococcemia, a disease broadly known as meningitis. While the most serious strains of meningitis can kill up to half of its victims, Kyle was lucky: he survived with no serious long-term side-effects.

An outbreak -- an unusually high number of cases that are not linked to one source – of meningitis occurs about once every 10 to 15 years in Canada. The last peak occurred in 1992, when more than 400 cases were reported. For the next six years the number of cases in Canada fell to about 190 each year. But the cycle is on an upswing again.

As stories that detail outbreaks emerge, parents begin to ask questions such as What exactly is meningitis? Who gets it? Why? and How can I protect my kids? Here are the answers to these and other questions, gathered from medical experts, educators and a family whose child beat the deadly threat to his life.

Q. What is meningitis?
A. It's an inflammation caused by an infection of the lining of the meninges, the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis comes in two distinct forms -- viral and bacterial -- both of which are spread by infected saliva, such as through kissing, sneezing or coughing.

Viral meningitis is by far the more common, but it is usually the least serious, says Dr. Donald Low, the chief microbiologist at Toronto Medical Laboratories and Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. In fact, those suffering from mild cases of viral meningitis may not need to see a doctor. If they do there's no treatment other than good care: antibiotics are powerless against a virus. Unlike bacterial meningitis, the viral infection can also be spread by inadvertently drinking polluted water, although you can't get it by swimming in polluted waters.

Bacterial meningitis is a different kettle of fish. The bacteria's structure is more complex than that of the virus, and the bacteria produce deadlier toxins that cause significantly more inflammation and tissue damage, says Low. Bacteria overpower the body's immune system, infecting -- and actually poisoning -- the blood. This poisoned blood then infects the lining of the brain or the spinal cord. The disease can cause widespread inflammation, which can cause the body's vital organs, such as the heart, liver and kidneys, to shut down, and eventually result in death unless treated in time.

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