\u201cOur thoughts are with the person\u2019s wh\u0101nau and loved ones during this difficult time,\u201d Meerkerk said.<\/p>\n
She said the meningococcal B vaccine was free for babies and children under 5.<\/p>\n
It was also free for people aged 13 to 25 in their first year of certain close-living situations, including boarding school hostels, halls of residence, military barracks, youth justice facilities and prisons.<\/p>\n
Meerkerk urged people to be familiar with the symptoms of meningococcal disease and seek medical attention early if they were concerned.<\/p>\n
The first symptoms may resemble those of the flu or a cold, but can worsen rapidly, with some people becoming seriously unwell within hours.<\/p>\n
Te Wano Grensill was an avid sportswoman and has represented New Zealand in volleyball and inline hockey.<\/p>\n
Volleyball Waikato acknowledged her death on social media, saying it was with great sadness that they share the news that \u201csomeone very close to our Waikato volleyball community\u201d has recently passed away due to the meningococcal disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly difficult time for their family, friends, teammates and everyone who knew and loved them,\u201d the post reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been an integral part of Waikato Volleyball – competing, coaching and volunteering for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this news is deeply personal to our community, we also want to make sure everyone is aware of the signs and symptoms of meningococcal disease. It can be a serious illness and can spread through close or prolonged contact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Public Health Service has advised that close contacts of the individual have been identified and provided with appropriate treatment and support.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther contacts have been assessed as low risk, meaning there is no increased risk to the wider community.<\/p>\n
\u201cRest in peace. You will be deeply missed by our volleyball wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur thoughts are with the person\u2019s wh\u0101nau and loved ones during this difficult time,\u201d Meerkerk said. She said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[682,8908,29804,634,7191,5504,71,281754,134,79760,281752,33554,111,139,69,1118,384,48047,8690,165,11226,1524,281753,1455,281755,1354],"class_list":["post-571538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-being","tag-check","tag-date","tag-death","tag-disease","tag-following","tag-from","tag-grensill","tag-health","tag-immunisations","tag-kyla","tag-meningococcal","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-people","tag-prompts","tag-te","tag-their","tag-urged","tag-waikato","tag-wano","tag-warning","tag-whnaus","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571538","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=571538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}