Contagious disease that spreads through droplets that are released into the air by sneezing, coughing or close contact with an infected person. It is more prevalent among children aged below five years in Malaysia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one million children die each year from pneumococcal disease worldwide. Studies of pneumococcal disease in Malaysia showed that pneumonia is the most common clinical occurrence of morbidity rates but the highest cause of death for infants and small children.
Who is at risk?
In general, anyone can be infected with this disease. Among these groups include:
* Children aged 2 to 24 months, especially those with medical problems such as chronic lung disease (excluding asthma), heart, kidney or liver.
* Adults aged 65 years and above.
* People who have cancer or HIV infection weakens the immune system.
* Those who experienced failure of nodes, for example after removal of lymph nodes in thalassemia or following trauma.
Danger pneumococcal
Pneumococcal infections can be devastating. In general, there are two types of invasive pneumococcal disease that is disease and non-invasive.
Invasive disease is more serious and cause disease in major organs or blood, including:
Pneumococcal Pneumonia
Invasive pneumococcal disease most commonly begins with a fever and can be followed by chills, cough, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, chest pain and fatigue.
Bacteraemia (blood infection)
* A serious complication that occurs when bacteria spread and infect the blood.
* If left untreated, it can affect the function of major organs that cause kidney failure and heart and cause septic shock. Septic shock result in loss of function or failure of various organs and can be life threatening.
Do not underestimate the disease because it is the highest cause of death among children.
Meningitis (inflammation of layers
meninges of the brain and spinal cord)
* A very serious situation when the meninges called the men-jeez-in' inflamed.
* Children who are infected show symptoms such as severe headache, vomiting, high fever, stiff neck, be sensitive to light, confusion and drowsiness.
* If not treated, complications such as seizures, increased drowsiness and coma.
* Meningitis recorded one of the highest mortality rates, with most cases involving children below one year old.
Both bacteraemia and meningitis is a disease that can cause death within hours. Infants and small children face a higher risk of contracting this disease because they have low levels of antibodies.
In contrast, non-invasive disease occurs outside the major organs and blood. These include:
Otitis media (middle ear infection)
* The infection usually occurs in conjunction with upper respiratory tract infections such as influenza.
* Children may experience ear pain, difficulty sleeping, difficulty hearing or responding to noise, loss of balance, headache, fever and fluid or pus oozing out of ears.
* Otitis media often result in serious complications such as hearing problems, delayed speech development and spread of infection to adjacent tissues such as brain.
Sinusitis (sinus infection)
* Pneumococcus can cause inflammation of the sinuses and nasal cavity. A person may experience headache, facial pressure, pressure, pain, fever, nasal discharge is yellow and green, stuffy nose, sore throat or cough.
Prevention
Practice good hygiene habits at home and in child care centers to help curb the spread of this disease. Train your child to clean their hands thoroughly when your hands dirty is a good practice as well as to avoid sharing cups, spoons and forks. Child-care centers also need to ensure that children who are unwell not to attend the care center because children are more likely to be infected as a result of increased exposure to bacteria.
While pneumococcal disease can be treated with antibiotics, it may be too late, and most cases of invasive pneumococcal disease can be fatal in fact be prevented by vaccination.
Vaccination is highly recommended to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease among children, particularly children below two years old.
There are two types of vaccines against pneumococcal disease and vaccine conjugation of polysaccharide vaccine. Vaccination is the main way in preventing many diseases, and thus prevent disease, disability and death are not necessary.
Parents may worry about the side effects that may arise as a result of vaccination, which is usually minor and minor in principle. Vaccination is still the best guard against the disease has the potential to kill or cause deformities of millions of children and adults for the rest of his life.
You have the option to prevent death and serious complications; increase the power of pneumococcal today!
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