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Rumours of meningitis outbreak in Olympic co-host city Qingdao denied

by yuls.source | July 18, 2008 at 09:00 am

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Chinese health officials are denying rumours of cerebrospinal meningitis outbreak in the Olympic co-host city of Qingdao. Health ministry reassures that the future site of the Olympic sailing events has seen no cerebral meningitis cases since the beginning of July.

According to the ministry's investigation, the city's 657 public health monitoring stations found no ECM cases in July, he said.

"In fact, between January to June, Qingdao saw a decline in ECM case numbers compared with the same period last year," he said.

Concerns over a possible epidemic arose after international media sources broke stories about a mysterious bug affecting individuals in Qingdao

A meningitis epidemic would be a huge nuisance to the Olympic organizers as meningitis is a potentially life-threatening disease that may lead to serious neurological damage in affected individuals. It is transmitted via a respiratory route and can affect any age group from newborns to elders. I imagine the nature of the disease transmission would have forced Chinese officials to perform numerous screens, quarantine people, and close down some of the events to limit the spread.

Liang Dongming, deputy director of the emergency response office under the Health Ministry [q url="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/18/content_8570574.htm"]"to ensure a healthy Olympics, all the co-host cities including Hong Kong have beefed up epidemic monitoring work".