A TWO year old boy from Ballinasloe, Co Galway, has died of meningitis. A spokeswoman for Portiuncula Hospital in the town confirmed yesterday that the boy, who lived locally, was declared dead on admission to the hospital on Monday.
A post mortem on the boy was carried out at the hospital yesterday, while medical staff were awaiting confirmation that hue died of meningococcal meningitis, the bacterial and more serious form of the disease.
The hospital said no other case of meningitis had arisen in recent weeks, although an adult woman was confirmed with the disease last month. She had been successfully treated and was due for discharge shortly.
Two other cases involving adults were successfully treated at University College Hospital, Galway. But a student from Athenry, Co Galway, Ms Denise O'Dea died in Cork, where she was studying, of meningococcal meningitis on November 2nd.
The Western Health Board (WHB) was the first health authority to issue a public warning about bacterial meningitis this winter after the cases involving a 20 year old woman and a youth aged 17 from the Loughrea area were confirmed in mid December.
The contagious condition may be associated with a high incidence of colds and flu. As other health boards warned of the need for early detection of the disease, which involves rapid inflammation of the lining of the brain, a WHB spokeswoman stressed that the Galway cases were not linked.
Treatment usually involves administering large doses of antibiotics to those directly infected and their immediate family.