Meningococcal: what to know about this potentially deadly disease affecting Australian children

By Phoebe Williams, Paediatrician & Infectious Diseases Physician; Senior Lecturer & NHMRC Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney
Monica Lahra, Senior Staff Specialist Microbiologist NSW Health Pathology; Conjoint Professor, UNSW Medicine, UNSW Sydney
Rae-Anne Hardie, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney
Saskia van der Kooi, Research Officer, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney

Three children in far north Queensland have recently become unwell with meningococcal disease, a life-threatening infection caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.

Meanwhile, an adult and a child have been hospitalised with meningococcal in…

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