Lagos hasn’t recorded any deaths from meningitis, says health commissioner

The Lagos state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, has said denied some media reports alleging that two deaths attributed to meningitis have been recorded in the state.

Speaking o n Sunday while reviewing the activities of the state government with regards to curtailing and controlling the spread of the meningitis epidemic, Dr Idris described the report as false and capable of causing undue panic among the citizenry.

“The report carried by some newspapers and online platforms is untrue and does not represent the reality of the situation in Lagos State as at today.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there are two main types of meningitis. The epidemic prone meningitis which is referred to as Cerebro-spinal meningitis (CSM), and is caused by a bacteria called Neisseria Meningitidis and its occurrence is seasonal or cyclical depending on the level of herd immunty and climatic conditions.

“The second type of meningitis is Non Epidemic Meningitis. This type of meningitis is usually caused by a virus or other bacteria, but not by Neisseria Meningitidis. The Non-epidemic meningitis occurs without any seasonal pattern or periodicity,” he said.

Idris also disclosed that though the Disease Surveillance Notification Officer in Lagos Island Local Government reported nine suspected cases of meningitis from Massey Street Children Hospital in Week 13 of this year with two deaths, none of these was confirmed as due to the causative agent of CSM.

He further revealed that though all the nine cases presented with clinical features of meningitis at the said hospital but laboratory tests proved that they were either due to Haemophilus influenza or Streptococcus pneumoniae and not Neisseria meningitidis.

Idris, in addition, said his ministry was also notified last week of a three-year old boy presented clinically as a meningitis case at a registered private facility in Lagos, but laboratory investigations did not confirm CSM.

According to him, the blood culture yielded no growth but the urine culture yielded Klebsiella and not meningococcus. He added that the patient is already is responding to treatment.

He went on to affirm that, “none of these cases presented with a history of recent travel to any area with an outbreak of meningitis and neither were visits from such areas recorded with the aforementioned cases.”

Idris seized the opportunity to reiterate the Lagos State government’s firm resolve to prevent and control the spread of the epidemic to the state.