Wirral girl, 16, cleared of Meningitis

Nov 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A SUSPECTED third case of meningitis at a leading grammar school in Wirral has tested negative.

Health experts had feared a 16-year-old girl was also suffering from the illness, after two sixth formers at Calday Grange Grammar in West Kirby were struck down.

On Monday, it was revealed a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy were being treated at Arrowe Park Hospital after being diagnosed with meningococcal disease.

The cases had led to hundreds of the grammar school’s sixth form students being told to expect to receive a course of antibiotics when they arrived at school earlier this week.

Last night, officials from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said the two students who had contracted meningococcal meningitis were “still in hospital but making good progress towards recovery”.

A spokesman for the HPA said meningitis does not spread easily from person-to-person and added: “There are no obvious links between the two confirmed cases or the possible case.”

He said there tend to be more cases at this time of the year and everyone should be vigilant for it.

Health officials have said it is “comparatively unusual” to have two cases at the same time in the same school.

Almost all those eligible for precautionary vaccinations at the school have now had their injections, the HPA confirmed last night.