Health board urges public to be on guard against meningitis

PEOPLE were yesterday urged by public health specialists attached the Southern Health Board to be continually vigilant in relation to meningitis.

While a vaccine for the Meningococcal C strain of the disease was introduced in October 2000 and has been very successful, with no reported cases in Cork and Kerry since July 2001, no vaccine has yet been developed for Meningococcal B which can be just as deadly as the C strain and has very similar symptoms.

Eight cases of Meningitis B were reported in Kerry in 2002 and 24 in Cork.