Meningococcal Scare in Queensland

Queensland Health has issued a warning asking parents to be vigilant about meningococcal disease after a two-year-old boy died from it. The boy was taken to the Mareeba Hospital on Saturday with fever-like symptoms, but was sent to the Cairns Base Hospital.

However he died there in the emergency department. Queensland Health spokesman Dr Jeffrey Hanna said that the toddler was seen by a childcare center before being shifted to the hospital.

"The question for us is [not] who might this child have given the disease to, it's the other way around," Dr Hanna said. "Who passed on this germ to the sick child?"

"We're not worried about people who have casual contact, in the supermarket or at the cinema for example. We need to follow up the children at the same daycare centre in Mareeba."