Five people are being treated for meningitis at a midlands hospital, it emerged last night.
Four teenagers who developed viral meningitis over the weekend, and a man in his 50s who developed a more serious strain of bacterial meningitis on Monday, re main in a stable condition at Longford-Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar. The five cases originated in the same Westmeath town land, a Midlands Health Board spokeswoman said.