The key facts
- A 12-year-old girl died on November 2 after an autumn session at the camp named after A. D. Gubin in Bugulma; the preliminary diagnosis is fulminant meningococcal infection
- Onishchenko: a child with a suspected infection should have been taken to hospital, not handed to her parents
- A case of causing death by negligence has been opened; 195 contact persons identified, 100 vaccine doses delivered to the city
The epidemiologist's assessment
Epidemiologist, RAS academician and Deputy President of the Russian Academy of Education Gennady Onishchenko said in an interview with TASS, that the 12-year-old girl who died after a stay at a children's camp in Tatarstan should have been taken to hospital immediately rather than handed over to her parents.
Chronology of the tragedy
The tragedy occurred after an autumn session at the camp named after A. D. Gubin in Bugulma. As Life.ru previously reported, on the evening of November 1 the girl came to the camp's medical station complaining of a headache; the examination recorded a temperature of 39.4 degrees. Staff contacted her parents, and that same evening they took their daughter home. The next day the schoolgirl's condition deteriorated sharply: she was hospitalized at the Bugulma Children's Hospital, then urgently transferred to the intensive care unit of the Leninogorsk Central District Hospital, where the child died on November 2. The preliminary diagnosis is a fulminant form of meningococcal infection with the development of meningococcemia and Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome.
Investigation and anti-epidemic measures
The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case of causing death by negligence; investigators are questioning witnesses and have ordered expert examinations. After the girl's death, authorities in Bugulma identified 195 contact persons, of whom 110 had direct contact with the sick girl; medical observation, vaccination and preventive administration of antibacterial drugs as prescribed by doctors were arranged for them. The city received the first batch of 100 vaccine doses, with another 200 doses expected at that time. Head of Bugulma Damir Fattakhov promised to provide the necessary assistance to the family of the deceased schoolgirl and urged residents not to spread unverified information.
What Onishchenko's comment changes
The academician's statement effectively points to a possible point of failure in the chain of actions: according to the published chronology, with a temperature of 39.4 degrees and a suspected infection, the child was handed over to her parents, and inpatient care was needed only the next day, when her condition deteriorated sharply. This is an editorial comparison of the chronology facts with the epidemiologist's assessment; final conclusions about the causes of death are the subject of the Investigative Committee's inquiry, and Onishchenko's comment contains no legal assessment.
