It all started with discomfort: a 19-year-old student dies of severe meningitis, contact cases sought

La jeune femme est morte en quelques heures. ILLUSTRATION UNSPLASH. – Olga Kononenko

Le jeudi 8 février 2024, une étudiante lilloise âgée de 19 ans est morte des suites d'une méningite. Son état de santé s'est brusquement dégradé et sa prise en charge à l'hôpital n’a pas suffi à la sauver. 

His ordeal began with a simple discomfort. Last Thursday, a 19-year-old student died due to a meningococcal infection in Lille, reports La Voix du Nord. Information intended for students and parents has been distributed in order to find contact cases. 

Dazzling infection

Victim of feeling unwell at home, a student was taken into care in Lille, in the North, before her condition suddenly deteriorated. Her devastating infection killed her in a few hours.

However, emergency services intervened on Thursday morning at his home, before taking him to Lille University Hospital. Despite resuscitation attempts by teams from the cardiopulmonary institute, she did not survive. 

Contact case search

The city's Catholic university, where the young woman was studying in her first year, sent a message to its students: "The Faculty and the university health service has since been in close contact with the Regional Health Agency."

Also read: Meningococcal meningitis: the number of cases on the rise, how to avoid this disease

A "contact tracing" procedure, or search for contact cases, carried out by the Regional Agency health has been launched, specifies the head of the emergency center Roch Joly to our colleagues: "Student contacts requiring the implementation of preventive measures have been identified exhaustively and contacted individually by the ARS teams.

To do this, "they first establish the list of people said to be at risk, the entourage and the core close to the person. These people are called by email or SMS in order to undergo antibiotic treatment", he specifies. To date, thirteen people are affected and are starting antibiotic treatment.