Meningitis; Inflammed meninges

The Meningitic Belt

Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges covering the brain and spinal cord.
Meningitis is predominant in the Meningitic belt, and is particularly lethal in infants and the immunosuppressed, where a high index of suspicion is required for a diagnosis to be made.

The casuative organisms are bacteria and viruses. Commonly, the Neisseria meningitidis, is the leading cause. Other organisms are,
Streptococcus pneumonia
Escherichia coli
Haemophilius influenza etc.

I was going through my mails and discovered a story is trending in the USA. It is about the failure of physicians to have missed the deadly signs of meningitis in a toddler (read full story here).

What I believe went wrong are;
1) To diagnose meningitis a high level of suspicion is needed, even in the so called "Meningitic belt"
2) It's possible that the physician may not really know the warning signs of meningitis. This is something every medical student down here, is supposed to know. Like I said, meningitis as a condition may not be a common occurrence in that area.
3)Medicine as a science, doctors are trained to assume that local endemic conditions are more likely in patient's, hence, we put aside other "less local" conditions until another day.
 This may just have been the situation on ground.
 Meningitis is a killer and it truly requires a very very high index of suspicion. Be alert!!!