Saint John mother wants routine meningitis B vaccines after nearly losing daughter
CBC
After almost losing her daughter to meningitis last year, Julie Stewart has a warning for other parents in New Brunswick — unless you booked a separate vaccine and paid about $300 for it, your child is not vaccinated against meningitis B.
"She got very sick, very quickly. Please educate yourself," said Stewart.
She said parents are often under the mistaken belief that their children have been immunized against it as part of the province's routine immunization schedule. Children are immunized against several other strains, but not B.
Meningitis B is a strain of invasive meningococcal disease, which can be fatal for up to 10 per cent of people who get it. It can also have long-lasting effects for those who survive.
Post-secondary students are particularly vulnerable because of the nature of their close living quarters, which is why Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island began targeted immunization programs.
It all started on June 30, 2023, when Lindsay Stewart developed a fever and started vomiting. By that evening, she developed a very bad headache.
Julie said her daughter's jaw hurt so badly she couldn't eat anything — and anything she did manage to swallow didn't stay down, including Tylenol.
She resisted any suggestion of going to the hospital, but when there was no improvement on the second day, she relented.
"My head was still killing me. There was no relief. Neither of us had slept all night. And around 5:30 in the morning, my mom said, 'No, Lindsay, we have to go to the hospital.'"
By 10 a.m., bacterial meningitis was strongly suspected and by noon, a cerebrospinal fluid analysis confirmed it.
"I've seen spinal fluid in my career and it should be clear, like water, and hers looked like skim milk," said Julie, who works in the hospital laboratory.
She said the results were categorized as "critically abnormal." By that time, Lindsay was even experiencing partial hearing loss.
"And so at one point, she had woken up and she said, 'Mom, don't people die from meningitis?' And I said, 'Yeah, they can.' And she said, 'Am I going to die?'"
