Viral meningitis, a common but rarely serious viral infection of the tissues covering the brain and spinal cord, is making its way around Kaua‘i again. A contagious disease with no known treatment spread by person-to-person contact, viral meningitis has been
Viral meningitis, a common but rarely serious viral infection of the tissues covering the brain and spinal cord, is making its way around Kaua‘i again.
A contagious disease with no known treatment spread by person-to-person contact, viral meningitis has been either suspected or confirmed in children and adults in both East and West Kaua‘i, health officials said.
“It’s been pretty persistent since July, when it began,” said Dr. Tyler Zerwekh, Kaua‘i epidemiologist with the state Department of Health. Lots of cases have been suspected or diagnosed worldwide, including on the Mainland and in the former Soviet Union, he said. It is suspected that it was brought to Hawai‘i and Kaua‘i by either a visitor or resident traveler from California, and spread widely through person-to-person contact, Zerwekh said.
Public-school officials have reported lots of absenteeism as a result of viral meningitis, which can only be confirmed through a spinal tap, where fluid is extracted from a patient suspected to have the disease, he continued. Zerwekh sent out information on the disease to school health aides concerned about the spread of viral meningitis through student populations, he said.
Symptoms can be similar to those of stomach flu, with the major difference in viral meningitis being headache that may be severe, back and neck pain, fever that comes and goes, drowsiness, confusion, and “photophobia,” or super-sensitivity to bright lights, Zerwekh said.
“Washing your hands is the easiest way” to prevent the spread of the disease. “Wash your hands, wash your hands,” he stressed.
Over 60 cases have been reported to DOH officials, and well into the hundreds of cases have been diagnosed by doctors on the island, he added.
While there is no specific treatment for viral meningitis, the symptoms, like headache and fever, can and should be treated, he said. Bed rest and consuming plenty of fluids should help patients survive the week-long duration of most cases, he said.
“The good thing is that it’s a very low mortality rate,” said Zerwekh. Most patients recover completely from viral meningitis.
Doctors at Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital at West Kauai Medical Clinic, and the satellite clinics, have also seen increases in both suspected and confirmed cases of viral meningitis, said Dr. Gerald Tomory, regional medical director for KVMH and Mahelona Medical Center and clinics that make up the Kaua‘i region of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.
While Zerwekh said he wouldn’t go the spinal-tap route if he thought he had viral meningitis, Tomory said taps have been done on patients suspected to have viral meningitis, in order to confirm suspicions. “One needs to know what’s going on with these patients,” and to be able to rule out the more-dangerous bacterial meningitis, said Tomory.
There have also been some early season flu cases seen in Kaua‘i patients, too. “We know that flu’s going around,” though flu season normally peaks in February, and Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i patients usually start getting the flu earlier than most patients on the Mainland, he said.
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
