Three teenagers being treated for bacterial meningitis in Galway have been discharged, while a fourth with the disease is stable and responding well to treatment, University Hospital Galway has confirmed.
All four were attending Colaiste Lurgan, Inverin, Co Galway. The three - two 13-year-old boys from Co Kilkenny and a girl from Connemara - who first contracted the disease early last week were all staying in the same house. The fourth, a 14-year-old girl admitted on Friday, had been staying in a different house. All four contracted meningococcal septicaemia.
The Western Health Board said its doctors were sending out information to all the Irish colleges in the west, advising the authorities and the landladies of the households to be alert to the symptoms of the disease.
The three suspected cases of meningitis in Cork are all doing well, the Southern Health Board has said, stressing that the cases - one from Cork city and two from Co Cork - are unrelated.
The Western Health Board has advised people to be alert to any symptoms and to contact their local GP if a child becomes ill. The symptoms of the disease include severe headache, drowsiness and confusion, stiff neck, dislike of bright light, frequent vomiting and fever.
Bacterial meningitis is often accompanied by septicaemia (blood poisoning). This is the severest form of the disease, and its symptoms include a rash which begins as tiny, red pinprick marks which develop into purple bruises or blood blisters.