Death No 4 brings warning on meningococcal checks

By REBECCA WALSH, health reporter

Meningococcal disease has claimed a fourth victim: a 45-year-old man in Wellington.

He died in Wellington Hospital yesterday and had been in intensive care since Tuesday, when he sought medical attention.

His death follows that of Wellington woman Nileema Sharan and Northland teenager Morehu Gedye, at the Waiouru Army training camp, last month. Another 18-year-old soldier is still in a serious condition in the intensive care unit at Palmerston North Hospital, where he has been for two weeks.

And on Wednesday an Auckland teenager died.

The 15-year-old was sent home from the Westcare White Cross accident and medical clinic on Tuesday after a thorough examination during which no evidence was found of meningococcal disease.

She has not been named.

The Health Ministry is urging the public and health professionals to be more rigorous in the search for signs and symptoms of the disease as the season's peak approaches.

The deaths have also prompted an Auckland woman whose son survived meningococcal disease to urge parents and doctors to be extremely vigilant.

Dale Alderson said yesterday that she was angry to read of the death of the Auckland girl.

"All I want is that they err on the side of caution anytime they strike this. It's too serious. Families are losing children and it's not on," Mrs Alderson said.

Mrs Alderson's 12-year-old son, Kieran, was taken to Starship children's hospital with meningococcal disease the day after a doctor at the same clinic said he had a sinus infection and sent him home with antibiotics.

Kieran was taken to the clinic in February because he had a severe headache, stiff neck, high temperature, was vomiting and not lucid.

Mrs Alderson asked the doctor twice if he had meningitis and was told no.

The mother of three said that because Kieran had been unwell the previous week and because "doctors know best" she accepted the diagnosis. But the next day she still had doubts and asked her mother-in-law, who was looking after Kieran while she worked, to take him to the family GP. The GP sent Kieran immediately by ambulance to hospital.

He was in a critical condition when he was diagnosed with meningococcal disease and remained in hospital for 10 days.

"He had all the classic symptoms, apart from the rash ... Luckily for us, Kieran came out unscathed. It could quite easily have been the other way."

Mrs Alderson, who felt the clinic doctor had been dismissive, rang and made a complaint to the receptionist after being told the doctor could not talk to her. She did not take it any further.

"I felt that I was treated in an off-hand manner. I felt he [the doctor] was dismissive of very abnormal symptoms. Kieran was not lucid, he was floppy all over the place. He can't remember any of this now," she said.

"If I had known then what I know now, I would have insisted he go by ambulance [to hospital]."

White Cross director of medical operations Dr Alistair Sullivan said he was not aware of Kieran's case but would be happy to investigate it if that was what the family wanted.

An investigation into the clinic's handling of the 15-year-old girl's case was expected to be completed early next week, he said.

The girl's 14-year-old friend Amy Gwilliam, whom police had been trying to contact in case she was also infected, has been found.

Dr Lester Calder, medical officer of health for the Auckland region, said Amy, who was holidaying with her mother in the central North Island, had contacted police on Wednesday night.

She had been given information on the disease and preventive antibiotics by the local public health service.

Dr Calder said Amy was well. More than 20 friends and family of the 15-year-old had been given antibiotics.

There had been 11 notified cases of meningococcal disease in the past week in Auckland, which was slightly more than usual, Dr Calder said.