Disease risk spooks Waiouru

By SCOTT MacLEOD

The Army will hold a court of inquiry into the death of a young recruit from meningococcal disease as Waiouru residents fear the illness will spread into the community.

Northland 18-year-old Morehu Gedye died less than 24 hours after he reported to the Waiouru Army base hospital with fever and vomiting last Monday.

A second recruit, also 18, was taken to Palmerston North Hospital on Thursday morning and was still seriously ill last night, although off the critical list.

Mr Gedye was a keen rugby player and former pupil of Otamatea High School in Maungaturoto, a small settlement 33km northwest of Wellsford.

School principal Haydn Hutching said he believed Mr Gedye left at the end of the sixth form and spent a year working out of Wellsford before joining the Army.

An uncle of Mr Gedye said the family were grieving and did not want to talk publicly about the death, although he praised the support the Army had given them.

But three Waiouru retailers criticised Army secrecy, saying they did not know whether the sick recruits had been into their shops, and they feared a spread of the disease.

One cafe worker said it "went without saying" that she was worried, but "We don't know if they've been out here, been off the base, or not".

A service station worker said the worry with meningitis was that "You get it one day and you're dead the next".

Army spokesman Murray Brown said the military had moved to stop the spread of the disease by giving four doses of antibiotics to 180 recruits and staff between Friday and yesterday.

Mr Gedye had reported to the camp's hospital on Monday morning with fever and vomiting, and was placed under observation.

At 1am on Tuesday he told a nurse he was in pain and was given pain-killing drugs. He was checked at intervals of 20 minutes at most, and was reported to be resting comfortably at 3.45am. Just 15 minutes later, he was "unrevivable".