Medical student dies

A promising young medical student has died just hours after contracting what is thought to have been meningitis.

Zachary Gravatt, a student doctor known to friends as "Party Boy", died on Wednesday night at Auckland Hospital.

The 20-year-old was admitted only a few hours before he died.

Family friend Norrey Simmons told the Herald Zachary's family were "shocked and devastated" at his death.

He was in his third year at the University of Auckland Medical School.