Education and prevention campaign
ContraTimp (Against the clock)
The University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF) of Craiova in partnership with the University of Craiova, the Directorate of Public Health (DSP) Dolj and the Dolj County School Inspectorate kicked off the first education and prevention campaign of the academic year 2023-2024, ContraTimp (Against the clock) - dedicated to raising awareness of the impact of meningococcal meningitis.
The first meeting took place on Wednesday, 11 October 2023, at 14.00, in Aula Magna (no.66, Bdv. 1 Mai).
The participants were Professor Dan Ionuț Gheonea - Rector of UMF Craiova, Senior Lecturer Gindrovel Dumitra - Secretary General of the Romanian College of Physicians, Senior Lecturer Adina Turcu - Manager of "Victor Babeș" Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology Craiova, Dr. Narciza Dinică - Head of Health Promotion Office of DSP Dolj, Simona Ciulu - ISJ Dolj.
The specialists invited the population to go to their family doctors' offices, to get the right information from specialised sources and to consider the option of prevention.
Meningococcal disease is an under-diagnosed disease. Early symptoms are non-specific, which greatly delays the initiation of antibiotic therapy. It can take only a few hours from the first symptoms to death!
There are three risk groups: infants and young children, the elderly and adolescents. Of these, teenagers appear to be the most at risk and become the main source of transmission to other age groups. Transmission of meningococcal disease among young people is favoured by specific behaviours: socialising, sharing tools, kissing, etc. The most common symptoms are high fever, headache, stiff neck, rapid breathing, drowsiness, eye sensitivity to light, muscle or joint pain, seizures, etc.
What are the consequences of infection? Apart from the problem of non-specific symptoms that delay treatment and hasten death, the infected person may be left with physical sequelae (there are cases of amputation of limbs), emotional sequelae, visual or hearing impairments, mental, motor, speech impairments and many others.
The ContraTimp (Against the clock) campaign is initiated by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova and is part of the Meningococcal Meningitis Awareness Programme.