Covid reduces cases of meningitis but makes this lethal pathology invisible

Covid, covid and more covid. The pandemic is taking over, this year and last, most of the administrations' efforts against infectious diseases. But the coronavirus is not the only pathogen with the capacity to kill that circulates in Spain and Aragon today, as recalled by the National Association Against Meningitis, which today commemorates the world day dedicated to the victims of this disease, which kills one. of every ten infected.

According to the latest data, so far this year 14 cases of meningitis or similar have been reported in Aragon (not specified), which represents a decrease compared to previous years. In comparison, this year and at this point, what is considered normal would be that 23 cases had already been detected. And if Covid has brought one good thing, it is that hygiene, protection (masks) and social distance measures have minimized the incidence of other diseases like the one commemorated today. In Spain, according to the Carlos III Health Institute, the decrease in recent months has been 90%.

This would be the only positive point of "covidcentrism", as Federico Martinón, a pediatrician and one of the national experts on meningitis in Spain, calls it, who participated this week in a seminar on meningitis organized by Pfizer. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic is reducing the visibility of other diseases, as reported by the National Association against Meningitis, which was created in 2016 to push institutions to meet the WHO's goal of eradicating meningitis from the world. for 2030.

The spread of this pathology occurs through saliva and droplets expelled when speaking, sneezing or coughing, so anyone is susceptible to becoming infected, although children and young people are the groups most at risk. Cristina Regojo is currently the president of the National Association against Meningitis, which still does not have representation in our community. She was infected when she was four years old, in 1981, "when Galicia was hit by the largest meningitis epidemic in Western Europe," she remembers. «There were thousands of children affected, including me. I was able to save my life thanks to the antibiotic after a few days in the ICU," she says. Meningitis, however, left him without hearing. «I learned to speak and modulate my voice thanks to speech therapists. Now I have a cochlear implant and I am on the waiting list to have it put in the other ear," explains Regojo, who is now a doctor precisely because of her desire to stop this disease.

10% fatality

Thus, both she and the members of the national association ask that more be known about this disease, since "it is not something of the past." It is among us and, in addition to being lethal for 10% of people who become infected, it leaves serious consequences in 30% of survivors, such as amputations, deafness and other illnesses that require lifelong medication. In addition, it is estimated that 60% of those affected need psychological support.

There is much to do. Families affected by meningitis demand that the administrations not forget about them after hospital discharge. "They need prostheses, cochlear implants, rehabilitation, psychological therapy..." says this doctor, who asks to do more so that families know "what the symptoms are with awareness-raising work as with other diseases."

There are vaccines against meningitis, but the problem according to the association is that coverage is not the same in all autonomous communities. Aragón does inoculate minors against meningococcus, one of the bacteria that causes this disease, but covid has also had an influence in this sense, and negatively. In Spain as a whole, "the pandemic has reduced vaccine coverage for meningitis by up to 70%."
In 2020, explains Dr. Regojo, 283 cases of meningococcal disease (one of the types of meningitis) were detected in Spain, while the accumulated cases since 1996 amount to 18.718. "However, these data are just the tip of a huge iceberg since only meningococcal disease is notifiable," and not other types of meningitis, Regojo acknowledges. Taking this into account, it is estimated that in Spain there are approximately 12.000 people affected per year.