Teenage girl, 16, dies from suspected meningococcal infection
A seven-month-old Adelaide baby diagnosed with meningococcal disease is on the mend.
Tragically, however, a teenager has died from a suspected meningococcal infection in Hobart.
The Adelaide baby was rushed by air to Adelaide from Roxby Downs in a critical condition on Wednesday morning.
On Thursday afteroon the infant, who has the B strain, began to show encouraging signs of improvement.
Her mother has released a post on social media urging anyone who has come into contact with her little girl to seek medical advice.
All South Australian children under the age of four will receive the B vaccine free from October.
Mother who just lost son to cancer returns to find boy’s bedroom ransacked
Driver ‘on wrong side of road’ ploughs into ambulance, injuring six
Woman agrees to become surrogate mother to her own grandchild
In Hobart, antibiotics have been given to a small number of people that were in close contact with a teenage girl who died on Thursday.
It is the first case of meningococcal in Tasmania this year, the state’s health department said in a statement.
Director of Public Health Mark Veitch passed on condolences to the girl’s friends and family.
Her death is being investigated by the coroner.
There were 16 confirmed cases of the rare disease in Tasmania last year.
Meningococcal, passed when coughing and sneezing, usually needs close and prolonged contact with a person for it to spread.
