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Concern over recognising serious illlness in feverish children
08 August 2007
Children with serious bacterial infections are often difficult to diagnose early. Intuition can be important but we cannot afford to rely on intuition and experience alone. The average doctor may only see one or two cases of meningitis or septicaemia in their career - and because of the speed at which the disease progresses, they don't get a second chance.
In today's NHS the first person to deal with a sick child may not be an experienced doctor, may not be able to exercise clinical judgement, may not even see the child. This is a major issue, and Meningitis Research Foundation has been campaigning for all doctors who do first line assessment of sick children to have adequate paediatric training.
There is perhaps no one system in medicine that is perfect but a combination of systematic measurement, intuition and experience, and listening to parents is likely to provide the best chance of recognising a child who is seriously sick. We would strongly advocate systematically measuring vital signs and actively looking for signs of meningitis and septicaemia and other serious illness in children presenting to primary care.
Since no system can guarantee early diagnosis for every child with a life threatening infection, it is very important to encourage parents who are sent home by their doctor to seek medical help again if their child continues to get worse.
Media Contact: Julia Warren 01454 281811 or 07711 057875
Notes to Editor:
- Meningitis Research Foundation has current and future research commitments of £1.1 million and has spent almost £13 million on research since it was founded in 1989.
- Meningitis Research Foundation operates a Freefone 24 hour helpline - 080 8800 3344 - providing information on meningitis and septicaemia to the general public and health professionals.
- Information on meningitis and septicaemia is also available on this website - www.meningitis.org - in 18 languages. An interpretation service in 120 languages is available through the 24 hour helpline.