Free Republic

RESEARCHERS here say that one in six Singaporean Haj pilgrims comes back carrying meningitis-causing bacteria - even though the pilgrims have been vaccinated. People carrying the virus risk passing the disease to their families back home. Researchers from Tan Tock Seng Hospital took swabs from the throats of 204 Malay pilgrims who sought vaccination against the bug before departing for Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, last year. Only one was carrying the bug. Upon their return from Mecca, 171 were re-tested, and this time, 29 were meningococcal carriers. Most of them were carrying the potentially-deadly W135 strain and six of them...

Death toll tops 1,000 in meningitis epidemic believed carried by Mecca pilgrims By BRAHIMA OUEDRAOGO, Associated Press Writer OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso - Aid workers opened makeshift clinics in tents and schools Thursday, as hospitals overflowed with feverish victims of a meningitis strain reaching epidemic level for the first time in West Africa. The death toll in the impoverished, desert nation of Burkina Faso topped 1,000, the Health Ministry reported. "The situation is still worrying, because the number of victims is still going up," Health Minister Pierre Tapsoba said, touring one hospital treating meningitis patients in the capital, Oaugadougou. The Red...

Health officials Tuesday debated whether to order widespread preventative immunizations after a Purdue University student contracted bacterial meningitis while on spring break in Florida. It was unclear when the student was infected since the disease can incubate for as long as 10 days before symptoms are displayed. The 19-year-old freshman became ill Saturday at an airport as he awaited a flight back to Indiana from Florida. A university spokesman said the youth is hospitalized in Fort Myers, Fla., in guarded but improving condition. So far, immunizations and antibiotics have been ordered only for those who had close contact with the...