Where was your disease of study first detected?

• Meningococcal disease was first discovered in Geneva in 1805, however, the first outbreak wasn’t until the 1840s in Africa (Edward’s, 2020).

What was the suspected infectious agent (e.g., bacteria, virus, fungi, or parasite)?

• The suspected infectious agent is meningococcal bacteria (Edward’s, 2020).

What type of disease was it (e.g., zoonotic, emerging infectious disease, etc.)? Be sure to include the definition of the disease typein your post.

• This is an emerging infectious disease as it has rapidly increased in cases in the last 20 years but can also be zoonotic in rare instances (Strunk et al., 2010). A zoonotic disease is when an infectious disease is transmitted from animals to humans (Rahman et al., 2020).

Where (e.g., what geographical regions) did the disease spread to?

• Meningitis spread from Geneva and Africa. It is now most commonly found in sub-Subharan Africa and this area is referred to as the ‘meningitis belt’ (2022).

What was the timeline of the spread?

• The exact year of the spread from Geneva to Africa is not known however it occurred sometime between 1805 and 1840 (2022).

Approximately how many people were affected (illness and/or death)?

• There is not an exact number since the first outbreak, however, there are 2.5 million cases worldwide every year (Anderson, 2021).

If available, include a picture or a link to a map in your Padlet post that shows location the disease has been detected.

How was the disease handled by the health care community?

• This disease was not very easy to handle and unfortunately did not have any vaccines available until 1999 (https://www.paho.org/en/topics/meningococcus#:~:text=Since%201999%2C%20meningococcal%20C%20conjugate,Canada%2C%20and%20Europe%20in%202005.). The World Health Organization does have a roadmap for their plans on how they are handling meningitis and its spread. By 2030 they plan eliminate bacterial meningitis epidemics, and reduce preventable cases and deaths from meningitis (Who.int).

What medical advances were used in combatting the disease?

• Vaccines and preventative antibiotics have been made in order to combat the disease and the spread of this disease. The antibiotics must be given to people in close contact with a patient with meningitis as soon as possible to reduce the chance of it being transmitted (who.int).

Were any new technologies applied to this disease? What were they?

• The meningitis research foundation have been studying genetic changes in meningitis causing bacteria to attempt to better understand how to prevent this disease (https://www.meningitis.org/blogs/using-technology-to-defeat-meningitis).

How was the disease handled by the leadership and/or governmental bodies to the disease?

• There is not much information on how the disease was handled when the first outbreaks occurred due to it being a very long time ago. However, there has been a recent increase in meningitis in the United States and the CDC issued a health alert to report the increase in cases to health workers. They are also recommending everyone be vaccinated against meningococcal disease to reduce the spread (https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2024/han00505.asp).

Were any innovative initiatives used in combatting the disease? What were they?

• There are many different innovative initiatives used in combatting meningitis. Many of these being the creation of multiple vaccines and vaccinating hundreds of millions of people against meningitis. For instance, Nigeria just created and released a new 5 in 1 vaccine against meningitis called the Men5CV which protects against five different strains of meningitis as opposed to just one specific strain (https://www.who.int/news/item/12-04-2024-in-world-first--nigeria-introduces-new-5-in-1-vaccine-against-meningitis).

What could leadership have done better in response to this disease?

• I believe that there could be more of a push for vaccinating against meningitis to slow the spread. There could also be more education on this disease and on what this disease can cause. I was not very educated on meningococcal disease until studying it this semester and I believe everyone could be more educated on this disease that has such bad complications.

What was the most revealing aspect you learned about your disease?

• The most revealing aspect I learned was how far this disease has spread and exactly when and where the disease was detected in each country. I never would have though that meningitis was as far spread or as infectious as it actually is.

What did you learn about your disease that surprised you?

• I was most surprised about how early on Meningococcal disease was discovered. I never would have thought that the first outbreak was in the 1800’s.

What did you come across in your research that should have been a part of the Padlet assignment?

• I believe that my padlet assignment should have included the mortality rate of meningitis and the age groups that are most at risk with this infectious disease. One in six people that catch meningitis end up dying from it and one in five have very serious complications.

Beyond the physical effect, what was the societal and sociological impact of this disease?

• Meningitis has a big impact on people in terms of societal expections and behaviors after recovering from it. For example, meningitis has very demanding medical follow ups which can put families in a lot of socioeconomic struggles. Meningitis can also make it very difficult for patients to be in normal societal settings as they can have severe medical complications such as seizures, hearing/vision loss, memory loss, and behavior changes.

Did any society behaviors change?

• The biggest society behavior that changed when meningitis was more known was the prioritization of vaccinating against this disease.