NSW: Meningococcal deaths reach 15

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NSW: Meningococcal deaths reach 15

SYDNEY, Aug 7 AAP - A NSW woman died from meningococcal disease after she was reportedlyforced to wait for treatment at Nepean Hospital.

A full clinical and coronial inquiry is now underway into the death of 45-year-oldhigh school teacher Sarita Yakub at the weekend.

Her passing, which brings the number of deaths from the dreaded disease to 15 in thestate, follows that of a seven-year-old girl from the Central Coast two weeks ago.

The girl's death is also being investigated after it was alleged that she was treatedseveral hours after being admitted to the Wyong hospital.

Mrs Yakub's husband, Mohammed, told the Daily Telegraph they were forced to wait formore than two hours after arriving at the hospital at 12.15am on Saturday.

Mrs Yakub was refused a bed and was forced to wait outside in the car, he said.

However, Health Minister Craig Knowles said hospital records suggested Mrs Yakub wasassessed at 12.42am and called for treatment at 1am, but was unable to be found.

He refused to speculate on the possibility she was in the car when she had been called.

However he said full clinical and coronial inquiries were underway and would look intothe various versions of the incident.

"And particularly about the variation in the versions of events associated with theperformance of the Nepean Emergency department in the early hours of last Saturday morning,"

Mr Knowles said in Sydney today.

Mr Knowles said he didn't think both the cases under investigation reflected greaterproblems in the health system.

"I think we have to take these cases case by case," he said.

Increased awareness of meningococcal had seen an increase in people presenting to emergencydepartments in the order of 30 per cent, Mr Knowles said.

"The Nepean emergency department and emergency departments generally, (are) right inthe middle of winter, experiencing very heavy loads, (and) we have seen in very recenttimes huge increases on top of those big loads largely as a result of parents' anxietyof meningococcal outbreaks," he said.

The death toll from the disease is now more than twice the seven fatalities recorded last year.

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KEYWORD: MENINGOCOCCAL