A four-year-old boy from Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal province, died of meningococcemia Monday night, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
The boy was rushed to Amang Rodriguez Medical Center in Marikina City around 3 p.m. and died six hours later, according to Dr. Manuel Mapue, head of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of the DOH鈥揘ational Capital Region.
Mapue said health authorities have stepped up surveillance and contact-tracing activities in the area where the boy lived, to check on his family, other relatives and neighbors.
He added that the boy鈥檚 close contacts have already been given prophylaxis to prevent them from developing the illness.
Meningococcemia is also called meningococcal meningitis or cerebrospinal fever. The infection begins as a sore throat or upper respiratory tract infection before it deteriorates into high fever, skin bruising and lesions, leading to meningococcal pneumonia or meningitis.
National Epidemiology Center head Dr. Enrique Tayag allayed fears that the disease may spread quickly.
But he urged the public to take precautions, including seeking hospital treatment immediately after seeing symptoms of the disease.
On a Twitter post, he said meningococcemia is not a highly contagious disease but can spread via 鈥渄irect contact of nose and mouth secretions from another sick person.鈥�
鈥淚t can also spread if a sick person directly sneezes or coughs to another person鈥檚 face,鈥� Tayag said, adding that it also doesn鈥檛 spread via 鈥渃asual contact鈥� such as being in the same room with the sick person.
The disease stems from a bacteria found in the nose, mouth and throat of healthy persons. 鈥淎bout five percent of health persons harbor the bacteria,鈥� he said.
Tayag added that meningococcemia is a blood-borne disease affecting mostly children. He added that up to 10 percent of those who get ill die even with hospital care.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Dr. Paraluman Manuel, the boy鈥檚 attending physician at ARMMC, said that four days before he was taken to the hospital, he was nursing a mild fever, coughing occasionally and feeling pain in the left leg.
Domingo Graboso Jr., the hospital鈥檚 head of security, added that a lockdown on the emergency room had been enforced and fumigation was conducted Monday night. Hospital operations were back to normal on Tuesday.