Action taken on meningococcal disease

Schools on the Peninsula have taken action to prevent meningococcal outbreaks among students.

The Woy Woy campus of Brisbane Water Secondary College is participating in the National Meningococcal C Vaccination Program.

Empire Bay Public School has been provided with a video and brochures to help raise parents' awareness of the meningococcal disease.

The vaccination program aims to ensure that all school children in Australia with signed consent forms are vaccinated against this disease.

Specially trained registered nurses visited Woy Woy campus on August 28 for the vaccination of years 11 and 12 students and some year 10 students.

The process involved movement to the staff common room, the checking of consent forms, injections, and recovery periods.

The principal of Empire Bay Public School, Mr Gordon Fraser, said that the vaccinations were a response to the high incidence of meningococcal on the Central Coast.

"The message is clear that about three-quarters of all deaths could have been prevented with earlier recognition and treatment," he said.

"School staff are always alert for any of the symptoms and we will immediately contact parents if we have any concerns at all and if necessary call an ambulance and send the student to hospital.

"We take the view that it is better to be overcautious than to take any risk at all."

School newsletters, September 10