ANOTHER case of bacterial meningitis has been diagnosed in Co Galway this week and three more suspected cases have been reported in the Eastern Health Board area.
Caroline Clarke (14), from Glenamaddy, is recovering at the city's University College Hospital. Her life was almost certainly saved by a penicillin injection given by her GP, Dr Patrick Geraghty, minutes after he visited the teenager at her home. Mrs Mary Clarke said the GP's quick action had undoubtedly saved her daughter.
Four other cases of bacterial meningitis have been recorded in the Galway area since early December. Last Monday, two year old Evan Dooley, from Ballinasloe, died from meningococcal septicaemia, a condition caused by the same bacteria which can trigger off bacterial meningitis.
In the EHB area of Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow, six cases of meningitis have been recorded so far this month. A 19 year old woman died from the illness in St Vincent's Hospital.
According to the Department of Health there were 373 reported cases of bacterial meningitis nationwide last year. The Department could not say how many deaths there were during that period. Later, however, the Central Statistics Office said that for the first six months of last year, 3 people died from the three forms of meningitis.
The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on health, Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn, in whose constituency the Galway girl lives, called for substantial resources to be invested in research into meningitis and for a national public awareness campaign.
She said that just £20,000 had been committed to a British Irish study on meningitis which she described as woefully inadequate and she called on the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, for an immediate increase. A Department of Health spokeswoman said that £50,000 had been allocated for a rapid diagnosis service for meningitis.