Risk for Travellers

The risk for travellers is highest at the end of the dry season. It is spread by sneezing, coughing and coming into close contact with someone who is infected. Some people can carry the disease without showing any symptoms, but they are able to spread the disease.

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms appear suddenly and can include severe headache, vomiting, fever, cold hands and feet, muscle and joint pain, stiffness of the neck, sensitivity to bright light, sleepiness, confusion, seizures and loss of consciousness. Babies and children are most at risk, as well as adolescents. Symptoms can be hard to recognise in small children, but they may show signs such as jerky or floppy movements, refusing to feed, listlessness, crying, unresponsiveness and rapid breathing. 

Meningitis can cause blood poisoning that shows as a purplish, red rash, that when pressure is applied to it, does not fade.

Prevention of Meningitis With 1 Course Vaccination at Dermacia

If symptoms of Meningitis show then the patient should be rushed to hospital. Treatment is with IV antibiotics. It is advised to take preventative measures rather than run the risk of catching it. Dermacia's travel clinic in Islington offers a 1 dose vaccination of Menveo to protect against some starins of the bacterial infection.

*Travellers coming to Saudi Arabia for Hajj or Umrah are legally obligated to show certification of vaccination against Meningitis.