Paawan Purba was just 20 when she died. Photo / Facebook
Paawan Purba was just 20 when she died. Photo / Facebook
A heartbroken father has pleaded for more to be done to raise awareness of the deadly meningitis strain that killed his daughter.
Pharmacology student Paawan Purba, who was passionate about curing diseases, died at the age of 20 last month after contracting the MenW strain, which does not present the symptoms traditionally associated with meningitis.
Paawan, who studied at the University of East London, went to university a year before the MenACWY vaccine against the strain was made available.
She was originally diagnosed with a flu-like virus after her parents, Baldev and Jasmeelsher, tested her for traditional meningitis symptoms such as a visible rash.
As her mother slept next to her on the morning she died, Paawan whispered to her: "Whatever you do, do not leave me". A few hours later she was rushed to hospital after becoming unresponsive and breathing heavily. She died later that morning.
"If someone had told me that there is a strain out there that does not have the traditional symptoms then I would have been aware," Mr Purba told the Telegraph.
"I have lost my daughter to something that looked like a normal viral condition. We are just staring into nothingness, thinking she only had a flu, because they were the symptoms we were looking at."
The MenW strain has a higher associated death rate than other strains, with a 13 per cent fatality rate compared to a rate of between five and ten per cent for other strains.
"It's out there," Mr Purba said. "People are dying from it. If you need an example, then use this to make sure no one else dies from it. There is just no need for it.
"I just lost my child and there is the potential for someone else to lose their child. That's what governments, ministers and health professionals should care about, that we should not be losing anyone else to something that is controllable.
"The second part of it is to make parents aware that this does not manifest itself with the traditional symptoms of meningitis."
Paawan was originally diagnosed with flu-like symptoms. Photo / Facebook
Paawan was feeling well when she returned to her home in Hounslow from her part-time pub job. The next day, though, she developed a high temperature, had no appetite and had aches and pains in her neck. Her local GP surgery recommended she drank lots of water and took paracetamol, because the illness was likely to be a virus.
By Friday night she felt no better, and her mother woke in the early hours of Saturday morning to find her unresponsive.
Since her death, more than £8,000 (NZ$14,500) has been raised for the Meningitis Research Foundation.
"If the money we raise can go into research and help save a life then surely that has got to be a positive thing," Mr Purba said. "If I can rest in the knowledge that someone else has not lost their life, that another parent is not going through the pain I am feeling, then that will be the positive I am taking from this. That has got to be the best outcome."
Paawan was described as someone who "smiled all the time" and a had a "positive outlook" on life.
"She truly believed she could make a difference," Mr Purba, 48, a telecoms engineer, said. "And she did. Everyone we have spoken to, she seemed to have some sort of relationship with them.
"She cared about everyone. She wanted to listen to what everyone was saying and she tried to make people feel better. She always put someone else before her.
