The mother of a Victorian teenager who tragically died from meningococcal disease is imploring health authorities to make a vaccine free for all children.
Emma-Kate was just 19 years old when she contracted meningococcal B in 2017.
Within the space of 15 hours, the teen went from a seemingly healthly young woman, showing initial symptoms of what appeared to be a virus or the flu, to falling victim to a force that overwhelmed her body until it couldn’t fight any longer.
Her mother Abby McGrath told 7News she thought her daughter had been immunised against the disease but did not realise that there were several different strains.
There are four strains of the disease and two vaccinations will inoculate a person against all four.
“She’d only be immunised against (meningococcal) C,” she said.
Initially the deadly disease presented as if the teen had a cold or flu.
“Emma came to me in the early hours of the morning saying she felt unwell, she had a temperature,” Ms McGrath said.
But her daughter who was studying nursing and paramedics at the time told her mum it was just a virus.
As her condition worsened Ms McGrath called an ambulance.
“I just knew deep down there was something really wrong,” she said.
“Once we got her to hospital, it all happened very, very quickly.
“Before we knew it, we were in a resuscitation room with lots of doctors and nurses looking after Emma.
“I was standing at the top of Emma’s head saying it would be OK. I had tears running down my face.”
Ms McGrath says she has a clear memory of her daughter saying: “It’s OK, mum”.
The young woman was placed in an induced coma to treat her.
Tragically, at no stage did the family think she would lose her life.
“We kissed her, told her, we loved her so much. I said, ‘I’ll see you in a few days and I’m not going to leave your side’,” Ms McGrath said.
Six years on, and the family is still “suffering” every single day.
For Ms McGrath the grief is compounded by the fact that if her daughter had been vaccinated she would have survived.
This month, NSW Health issued a warning about meningococcal disease after a spike in cases – mostly of the B-strain of the infection.
Twenty-five cases have been reported this year in NSW alone, which comes close to surpassing the 29 cases that were reported across the whole of 2022 in the state, three of which were deadly.
Meningococcal is a highly contagious disease that can develop quickly and can be fatal. It can kill within hours, so early diagnosis and treatment is vital.
Currently, only A, C, W, Y strains are on the national plan so the B-strain vaccine costs families hundreds of dollars per jab.
The national plan makes it free only for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants and immunocompromised people.
This is despite the fact that in 2014, the federal health advisory body ATAGI recommended the meningococcal B-strain vaccine be made available for free for all young children and teens.
But, some states – Queensland and South Australia – have moved ahead with subsidising the B-strain vaccine.
In December last year, 23-year-old Queenslander Bella Fidler tragically died less than 24 hours after she was admitted to hospital with the disease.
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Bella tested positive for meningococcal B after returning from a girls’ trip in Indonesia to celebrate the end of her law degree. She was rushed to a Gold Coast hospital, where she could not be saved.
Her parents, lobbyed to make the meningococcal B-strain vaccine free for all children under the age of two and teenagers aged 15 to 19, under routine childhood and school immunisation programs.
– with Chloe Whelan
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