The University of Otago has confirmed a case of meningococcal disease within the student community.<\/p>\n
In an email to students, vice-chancellor Grant Robertson said the university was working with public health to contain the infection.<\/p>\n
He said close contacts had been notified and offered antibiotic and vaccination protection.<\/p>\n
Grant Robertson said the risk was low for the wider student community as the meningococcal disease infection was passed on only though close or prolonged contact with an infected person.<\/p>\n
Meningococcal bacteria live in people’s noses and throats and are spread by coughing, sneezing, or contact with nose and throat secretions.<\/p>\n
“Although the bacteria can be passed from person to person, it is relatively uncommon for even family contacts to become ill,” Robertson said.<\/p>\n
He said it was important to know the symptoms and seek medical help quickly if students felt unwell. Symptoms could appear suddenly and may include:<\/p>\n
FeverSevere headacheNeck stiffnessSensitivity to lightNausea or vomitingCold hands and feet or limb painDrowsiness or difficulty wakingConfusionA rash that does not fade when pressed.<\/p>\n
“If you experience fever together with headache, neck stiffness, or feel suddenly very unwell, please seek medical help immediately.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of Otago has confirmed a case of meningococcal disease within the student community. In an email…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-324132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}