By GREGG WYCHERLEY
Parents of teenagers who holidayed on the Coromandel Peninsula are being advised to monitor their children for symptoms of meningococcal disease.
The warning follows notification that two teenagers, from Auckland and Waikato, caught the potentially fatal disease after visiting the Coromandel over the holidays.
Waikato medical officer
of health Felicity Dumble said the cases did not appear to be directly linked but she advised caution.
"The two age groups most at risk of developing the disease are infants and adolescents.
"This may just reflect the fact that you have a lot of adolescents converging on the Coromandel at that time."
Dr Dumble said overcrowded living conditions, and the exchange of saliva through activities such as sharing drinks, cigarettes or kisses were all risk factors.
A middle-aged Waikato man and four Bay of Plenty people have also contracted the disease this year.
The new cases are part of the nationwide epidemic that led to 550 cases and 17 deaths last year, and 635 cases and 26 deaths in 2001.
"We haven't got numbers that would suggest a change in the trends we've been seeing for a number of years," said Dr Dumble.
"It appears that it's coincidental, that those two cases occurred in people who had both spent some of the time of their incubation period there ...
"It doesn't necessarily mean they definitely picked it up in the Coromandel."
Dr Dumble warned people to look out for symptoms of the disease, particularly headache, neck stiffness, dislike of bright light, fever, vomiting, and a rash or spots.
Parents of infants should watch for subtle changes such as apathy, drowsiness, excessive crying and abnormal feeding.
More serious signs include convulsions and rashes.
