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Two-year-old boy in South Australian hospital with meningococcal disease

A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy from metropolitan Adelaide is in hospital in a serious condition with meningococcal infection amid fears children at a Para Vista childcare centre may also be infected.

SA Health is working with officials from a metropolitan childcare centre and is contacting all people who have been in contact with the boy.

SA Health said staff had attended a Para Vista childcare centre but would not confirm which one.

So far 64 people have been urged to take antibiotics as a precautionary measure.

The strain of the disease is not yet known.

Meningococcal (neisseria meningitidis) disease bacterium germs under a microscope.

Officials remind parents that a free vaccination against the B strain is now available for children aged six weeks to under four years of age.

So far this year there have been 24 cases of meningococcal disease in South Australia compared to 31 cases at the same time last year.

Of the 24 cases, 19 have been the B strain, three the W strain and one the Y strain, with the latest case yet to be identified.

No links have been established between the latest cases and previous cases.

 

SOURCE: The Adelaide Advertiser

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