Better management of hospitals could reduce number of deaths from meningitis
24/06/2005
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A report has found that the number of children dying from meningitis could be reduced by better training and management of hospitals and hospital staff.
Meningococcal disease is the most common infectious cause of death in children in many developed countries.
Over three hundred children were looked at in the study. For each child three survivors of the same age and from the same area were also assessed.
A panel of paediatricians looked at each case to see how quickly care had been given and what the quality of emergency was in the first twenty -four hours after the child was admitted to hospital.
Experts from the Meningitis Research Foundation analysed four hundred cases in Britain.
Failures in management were significantly more common in cases where children died, the British Medical Journal study said.
It was found that failures in the management of meningococcal cases were significantly more common in the care of children who died than those who survived.
Not being treated by a paediatric team and junior doctors not being supervised by a consultant were significant risk factors.
The paediatricians said not giving adequate drugs to treat shock and organ damage, and failure to recognise complications in also increased the risk of death.
In the cases of children who died, their vital signs were often inadequately documented in nursing records.
Commenting in a national news report, Professor Michael Levin, Director of Research at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who led the study said:
"Our study provides clear evidence that the chance of surviving meningococcal septicaemia or meningitis is reduced if children are treated without the involvement of a paediatrician or supervision by experienced consultants.
The findings highlight the need for better consultant supervision, and improved training of medical teams involved in the care of critically ill children."
The Meningitis Research Foundation has put together a handbook to help junior doctors identify the signs of meningococcal disease, which also details the kind of mistakes which have been seen in the study so they medics know what to watch out for.
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