The 12-year-old boy from Monaghan town with meningococcal meningitis was still critically ill in hospital in Dublin last night, following the death of his friend on Tuesday night from the disease. Two other teenagers from the same housing estate are still being treated for the disease in Monaghan General Hospital. They were described as being in a "comfortable condition".
In Limerick, gardai have confirmed that Ms Laura Enright (26), of Banogue, Croom, whose body was found by a member of her family on December 28th, died of meningitis.
At a public meeting in Monaghan town, organised by the North-Eastern Health Board yesterday, some disquiet was expressed that neighbours in the Cortalvin estate, where the boys lived, were not informed sooner that there was a case of meningitis. Over 600 people attended the meeting.
Colm Maher was admitted to hospital in Monaghan on Monday evening and later diagnosed with meningitis. He was transferred as an emergency case to Temple Street Hospital, Dublin, on Tuesday evening. Members of his family were treated with antibiotics by doctors from the health board.
His friend, Kieran McGahon (15), complained of flu-like symptoms on Monday night and his parents sent him to bed. By Tuesday morning he told his mother he was feeling very ill and collapsed on her bed. He was brought to hospital, but died hours later.
There was praise at yesterday's meeting for the general response of health board medical personnel and their decision to hold the meeting. Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain TD (Sinn Fein) said he would be writing to the Minister for Health proposing that procedures following an outbreak of meningitis include extending the catchment group to be alerted beyond the immediate contact group.
He said he was not criticising the action of the health board or any of the professionals involved, but he wanted to open up a discussion on the practice concerning notification procedures in future.
A spokeswoman for Temple Street Hospital said Colm Maher was "still critically ill but stable". He required full intensive-care treatment, she said.
There have been three other cases of meningitis in the North-Eastern Health Board area recently. In November a child in Three Mile House was diagnosed as having the disease and in December two infants, one in Ballybay and the other in Clones, were diagnosed. All three recovered.
Last year there was an increase in the number of reported cases of the disease in the area of about 15 per cent, according to Dr Rosaleen Corcoran, the health board's director of public health.
???i meanwhile have confirmed that Laura Enright (26) of Banogue, Croom, Co Limerick, whose body was found in her bedroom by a member of her family on December 28th, died of meningitis. In Limerick, the director of public health at the Mid-Western Health Board, Dr Kevin Kelleher, while not identifying Ms Enright, said that Dr John Harbison, the State Pathologist, had said in his post-mortem report that she died from pneumococcal meningitis.
Dr Kelleher said that this strain of the disease was not contagious. The bacterium which caused it usually resulted in pneumonia, but it could affect the meninges or brain covering. It was more usual in the elderly, he said.