Up to now, parents and carers have been advised to look for the 'textbook'
meningitis symptoms including severe headache, fever, vomiting, stiff neck, aversion to bright lights and a red rash.
But these typically take between 13 and 22 hours to develop, by which time many sufferers might be close to death. Researchers have now identified symptoms present after an average of just eight hours:
* Cold hands or feet with a high temperature
* Severe limb pain
* Abnormally pale or mottled skin colour, especially around the mouth or lips.
The Meningitis Research Foundation funded a 15-month study at Oxford University. MRF chief executive Denise Vaughan said, 'This important research has identified the need for doctors to systematically look for those symptoms in children. We hope this will change how meningitis and septicaemia are looked for in primary care, and save lives.'
Visit www.menigitis.org.