She spent ten days in Kingston Hospital,
Surrey, on intravenous antibiotics before
she was well enough to go home.
Seema is now keen to warn parents
and young people about meningitis. She is
supporting a new campaign by Meningitis
Now to make students, young people and
their parents aware of the signs and
symptoms of the disease and is urging them
to get vaccinated.
“Meningitis changed me. I embrace life.
I make the most of every opportunity and
there are many times when I stop in busy
moments and remind myself how lucky I am
to be here,” she says.
JANET TANSLEYVisit meningitisnow.org for more infoMENINGITIS:
THE FACTS
HEALTH
● Meningitis is an infection of
the protective membranes that
surround the brain and spinal cord.
It can affect anyone but is most
common in babies, young children,
teens and young adults.
● There were 755 reported cases
of meningococcal meningitis and
septicaemia in England in 2017/18,
with 16 per cent of all cases in
young adults aged 15 to 24.
● Meningitis can be very serious if not
treated quickly, causing life-threatening
blood poisoning, also known as
septicaemia. Sadly, one in ten people
who contract bacterial meningitis will
die, while one in three survivors will be left
with life-changing after-effects such as
limb loss, deafness and brain injury.
● Signs and symptoms include
drowsiness and being difficult to wake,
fever, cold hands and feet, severe muscle
pain, severe headache, confusion and
irritability, pale, blotchy skin, spots or arash that won’t disappear when
pressure is applied, dislike of bright lights,
stiff neck and convulsions/seizures.
● Young people have a higher risk of
contracting meningitis as they are likely
to be mixing closely with large groups of
people who may be carrying the bug.
● Up to a quarter of 15 to 24-year-olds
carry meningococcal bacteria, that can
cause meningitis, in the back of their
throats compared with one in ten of the
general population.
● Meningitis Now is running an
awareness campaign to ensure all
youngsters aged 15 to 24 get
vaccinated against MenB. While
most will have been inoculated
against MenACWY – four strains
of meningococcal bacteria – as
many as two in ten may have
skipped vaccination.
● Few people will have been
vaccinated against MenB, which
causes most cases of bacterial
meningitis in the UK. The
vaccine was only added to
the UK child immunisation
scheme in 2015.to clocking off so she could check out the
latest arrivals in Topshop, her usual Saturday
routine. Except it turned out to be anything but
a typical day.
“I got a really bad headache around midday
and it wouldn’t go,” she recalls. “I just thought
I was tired or coming down with a cold or
flu. I took a couple of painkillers and thought
I would sleep it off.
“I got home at around 7pm and lay on the
sofa, but my head was still pounding and
I couldn’t sleep so I went to bed. In the middle
of the night my mum came to check on me
and called the doctor, who thought it could be
a bout of flu, so Mum gave me paracetamol.
But after that I threw up – and it was bile, one
of the signs of meningitis. My neck started to
hurt and I couldn’t bear the light.”
As Seema began to lose consciousness,
her mother, recognising the symptoms, called
an ambulance.
“The paramedics arrived and after taking
one look at me decided I’d taken drugs. They
apparently dragged me to the ambulance
with little sympathy for another teenager
having an adverse reaction to something
they’d taken,” says Seema. “I loved my sports
so I wouldn’t ever take drugs, which Mum and
Dad knew, but they were scared.”
By the time Seema reached hospital she
was in a coma. She woke up in the middle
of a lumbar puncture – where a small needle
is inserted into the spinal canal so a sample
of fluid can be taken for testing.
“I had no idea what was going on. My
parents were told to prepare for the worst
and that they might have to put me on a life
support machine,” she adds.
Blood tests and a brain scan, in addition
to the lumbar puncture, revealed Seema had
bacterial meningitis B, which had been caught
just before it turned to septicaemia.Young people are
being urged to
have the MenB
vaccinationCheck for spots or a rash
that won’t disappear when
pressure is appliedWith mum Raziya who
raised the alarm‘Life might
have been
very different
- or not
carried on
at all’
PHOTOS: Getty, Meningitisnow.org