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Meningitis - sound information in 17 languages
19 July 2002
Meningitis and septicaemia, the blood poisoning form of the disease, can strike anyone of any age with devastating consequences. As part of Meningitis Research Foundation's commitment to ensuring that life-saving information is available to everyone, the national Charity is launching audio information in 17 different languages.
Supported in part by a grant from the Department of Health, the information is available in written format, as audio cassettes and as sound files on this website in Albanian, Arabic, Bengali (Sylheti), Chinese (Traditional), French, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Irish Gaelic, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.
These new resources will enable many more people whose first language is not English, to hear and understand the symptoms, find out what to do if they suspect someone has the diseases and learn about the vaccines that are available against some forms of meningitis and septicaemia.
In recent years a rare form of meningitis and septicaemia - W135 - has affected Hajj pilgrims and their families. For this reason, the information in seven of the languages - Arabic, Bengali (Sylheti), Gujarati, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish and Urdu - also contains special vaccine information for members of the Muslim community who may be travelling to Mecca for the Hajj or Umrah.
Denise Vaughan, Chief Executive of Meningitis Research Foundation said: "Our new resources will help many more people whose first language is not English to understand the symptoms of these dreadful diseases and hopefully save lives."