Town Clock part of ‘chain of light’ as world marks Meningitis Day

Gisborne’s Town Clock is lit up to mark World Meningitis Day, as are other landmarks including the Dunedin Settlers Museum, clock towers in Ashburton, Hastings, Palmerston North and New Plymouth, and Auckland’s Aotea Centre. Picture supplied

Today is World Meningitis Day.

To mark the occasion, a global movement has created a “chain of light” symbolising the aim of the World Health Organization’s Global Road Map to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 and to remember those who have died or whose lives have been changed forever because of meningitis .

As part of this “chain”, Gisborne’s Town Clock has been lit up in purple — the colour of The Meningitis Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand.

The foundation is calling for those eligible for funded vaccination to get vaccinated urgently.

It is also sharing information about signs and symptoms of meningitis — an infection and inflammation of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Symptoms include, for adults and children, a stiff neck, headache, fever, vomiting, light insensitivity, drowsiness/confusion, joint pain and fits or seizures.

For babies and infants, symptoms include difficulty waking them, lethargy, a stiff neck or arching back, vomiting, a blank expression, a dislike for being handled, a pale or blotchy complexion and a high-pitched moan or whimper,

Meningococcal disease can develop rapidly and kill within hours.

Those who survive often have serious long-term effects, including amputation of limbs, hearing loss, seizures, brain injury and permanent skin scarring.

The disease affects all ages but those 13 to 25 are particularly vulnerable.

Māori and Pasifika communities are also at high risk of catching the disease and not receiving timely treatment.

Māori and Pasifika are five times more likely to contract meningitis than other ethnic groups.

Globally, meningitis kills one in 10 people and causes lifelong disability in one in five who survive it.

Forty-four cases of meningococcal disease have been reported in New Zealand this year. Over 50 percent of cases were Māori (39 percent) or Pacific peoples (14 percent), while 32 percent were aged between 15 and 24

In the last five years, 20 people have died from the vaccine-preventable meningococcal disease.

On March 1, the meningococcal B vaccine became free for all babies aged 12 months and under.

It is administered as part of the National Immunisation Schedule alongside other infant immunisations.

A free catch-up programme is available until August 31, 2025, for all other tamariki aged under five.