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Meningococcal infection – meningitis, septicaemia
Meningococcal infection – meningitis, septicaemia
Statutory notification alert
Meningococcal infection is a notifiable infectious disease in Western Australia.
Alert:
cases must be reported urgently by telephone to the
public health units (Healthy WA)
within a few hours of first suspicion of diagnosis.
See
notifiable communicable disease case definitions (Word 1.29MB)
.
Notifications should be made using the communicable disease notification form for
metropolitan residents (PDF 209KB)
or
regional residents (PDF 208KB)
.
For notification of regional residents see contact details of
public health units
.
See also description of
statutory medical notifications in Western Australia
.
Public health management
Important information
Infectious agent:
Neisseria meningitidis
bacteria.
Transmission:
Person to person contact with respiratory droplets from nose and throat of infected person.
Incubation period:
Usually 2 to 10 days (average 3-4 days).
Infectious period:
Until
Neisseria meningitidis
bacteria are no longer present in discharges from nose and mouth.
Case exclusion:
Exclude until antibiotic treatment has been completed.
Contact exclusion:
Do not exclude.
Treatment:
Antibiotic treatment as recommended by the doctor.
Immunisation:
Recommended that children be vaccinated according to the
Western Australian immunisation schedule
. Persons at high risk for meningococcal disease are also recommended to have the vaccine. See
Australian Immunisation Handbook, Department of Health – Meningococcal disease (external site)
.
Case follow-up:
Is conducted by
public health units (external site)
and the Communicable Disease Control Directorate.
Guidelines for health providers
Communicable Disease Guidelines, for teachers, child care workers, local government authorities and medical practitioners (PDF 386KB)
Australian Immunisation Handbook, Department of Health – Meningococcal disease (external site)
Meningoccocal disease guidelines for principals (Word 574KB)
Meningococcal disease fact sheet (Healthy WA)
Guidelines for public health units
Meningococcal Disease – National Guidelines for Public Health Units (external site)
Meningococcal disease fact sheet (Healthy WA)
Meningococcal prophylaxis Ceftriaxone fact sheet (Word 565KB)
Meningococcal prophylaxis Ciprofloxacin fact sheet (Word 565KB)
Meningococcal contact prophylaxis form – Ciprofloxacin or Ceftriaxone (Word 213KB)
Meningococcal prophylaxis Rifampicin fact sheet (Word 571KB)
Meningococcal contact prophylaxis form – Rifampicin (Word 211KB)
Meningococcal disease – letter templates for contacts (Word 366KB)
Notifiable disease data and reports
Notifiable infectious disease dashboard
Commonwealth up-to-date meningococcal notification data (external site)
General infectious disease reports
More information
The Meningitis Centre (external site)
The Amanda Young Foundation (external site)
Produced by
Public Health
Related links
Meningococcal disease (Healthy WA)