Shared drink blamed for spread of meningococcal disease

1.00pm

Over 20 people have been treated with preventive antibiotics after two teenagers were admitted to hospital with meningococcal disease this week.

A 14-year-old boy was in the hospital's intensive care unit, while a girl, also 14, was stable and improving in a general ward at Palmerston North Hospital.

Both were students from Waiopehu College, Levin, and were at the same function last week.

Communicable disease nurse Jane Rivers said it appeared the infection had spread from sharing a drink bottle.

"The others quite quickly realised what they had done, as soon as someone got sick."

Two dozen people, including members of the teenagers' families and those identified as likely to have shared their saliva, had been treated with preventive antibiotics.

The antibiotic treatment does not stop someone already incubating the disease from becoming ill, but it does stop the spread.

Mrs Rivers said the public health service had provided information and support to Waiopehu College staff, and notified the town's GPs about the outbreak.

Meningitis symptoms include severe headache, vomiting, stiff neck, irritability, drowsiness or a rash.

Mrs Rivers said the message from the incident was clear. "Be scared spitless. Just don't share saliva."

The two cases bring the Manawatu region's tally of cases this year to 11. The vaccine against meningococcal disease is expected to be available at Manawatu's MidCentral Health in April next year.

- NZPA