27-year-old woman dies of bacterial meningitis in Rome: 'Here's when to worry'

By Cristiano Antonino On Jan 13, 2023

Bacterial meningitis, infectivologist Roberto Ieraci talks about the pitfalls of the disease that killed Valeria Fioravanti in just a few days. And stresses the importance of vaccination

She was only 27 years old, Valeria Fioravanti, the young woman from Rome who died of bacterial meningitis recognised too late after seven visits to the emergency room in a few days for increasingly intense pain.

Valeria was the mother of a 15-month-old girl and had undergone minor surgery at the end of December to remove an ingrown hair.

The family wants to get to the bottom of it, and the public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for manslaughter.

A death that has understandably shaken Valeria’s father, a firefighter for over thirty years.

Let us try to better understand this disease and how to defend ourselves against it.

THE SYMPTOMS OF BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

‘Bacterial meningitis caused by meningococcus or pneumococcus is a rare disease but one that either kills or leaves important neurological relics,’ Roberto Ieraci, infectivologist in charge of Lazio’s vaccination strategy, explains.

But what are the symptoms?

‘High fever and headache in the case of children you can immediately see that it is an important and serious disease due to some skin reactions.

So in these cases one must not wait and must take them immediately to specialised children’s hospitals.

But what is important,’ the expert emphasises, ‘is to prevent this serious disease with vaccination’.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VACCINE AGAINST BACTERIAL MENINGITIS

Precisely because of the seriousness of the consequences of bacterial meningitis, ‘it is important to get vaccinated, especially in the younger age groups,’ Ieraci points out.

Getting these vaccines, which are safe, effective, and modern, is very important both in young children, as provided for in the National Vaccine Calendar, and in adolescents, because the most frequent cases occur in the first year of life, and then there is a peak in adolescence and young adults, especially when they attend school.

The possibility of preventing this very serious disease is there, so why not vaccinate young people?

That is the crux of the problem.

Then anything can happen, there are also rare cases in older age, more from pneumococcus than meningococcus, but it is still important to vaccinate’.

WHY BACTERIAL MENINGITIS IS DANGEROUS

The expert then recalled that in our National Vaccine Calendar there is both the acwy and B meningococcal vaccine.

‘Meningitis is such a serious and rapid-onset disease that many times it can be difficult to make a diagnosis.

It can kill in a short time,’ Ieraci continued, ‘in fact, one of the problems is to make a rapid and certain diagnosis, especially in paediatric age groups, because from the onset of symptoms to the serious course of the disease there can be little time.

Bacterial meningitis is also responsible for the death of the great rock guitarist Jeff Beck.

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