Five students hospitalised over meningococcal outbreak

Five Ballarat teenagers have been hospitalised and quarantined after a sudden outbreak of meningococcal disease.

Two teenagers are in a critical condition, while three remain in a serious but stable condition after all were diagnosed with meningococcal disease over the past two days.

Doctors at the Ballarat Base hospital are extremely concerned for the five, all close friends and students at Sebastapol College in the Ballarat region.

It began with fifteen year old Jeremy Little whose mother rushed him to hospital on Tuesday evening after complaints of a headache and uncontrollable vomiting.

By 3pm yesterday, Monica Templeton, 14, David Hughes, 15, Erica Singh, 13, and Jordan Reed, 16, had all been diagnosed and quarantined.

Head of Communicable Diseases at the hospital, Dr. Beryl Wainwright says it’s an extremely rare case, she has “never seen an outbreak of this strain affect so many people so quickly.”

Little’s mother, Lynne, said she started to become seriously concerned when her son came down with an high fever and couldn’t stop vomiting. “I just threw him in the back of the car and tore down here,” she said. “I’ve been tearing my her out ever since. I haven’t slept or eaten. Jeremy’s my life.”

Sebastapol College Principal, Bruce Feeney said he was awaiting instruction from the Department of Education as the situation was “not a matter for the school” to deal with independently.