Child dies of meningococcal disease

A young child has died after contracting meningococcal disease, the Department of Health has confirmed.

Declining to reveal any details of the child including age, gender or where they lived, the department would only say the child's family had been given antibiotics to minimise the chance that the deadly disease could have been passed on.

This case brings to five the number of meningococcal cases reported in WA in 2013.

Meningococcal disease is a bacterial infection of the blood and the membranes that line the spinal cord and brain.

The infection is most common in young children, older teenagers and young adults.

Symptoms can include high fever, chills, headache, neck stiffness, nausea and vomiting, drowsiness, and severe muscle and joint pains.