Boy’s death spurs plea for support

School leaders say meningococcal case shows up flaws in local health system

Northland’s first meningococcal death in more than two years, a 6-year-old boy, has Kaikohe leaders pleading for more essential health services in their rohe (area).

The boy, from the Kaikohe area, was sent home from Tautoro School on February 12 by a teacher for being unwell, before being admitted to Bay of Islands Hospital and later to Whangārei Hospital.

The boy passed away the following day and was laid to rest last week. He was one of 10 siblings.

Northland District Health Board (NDHB) medical officer of health Dr Catherine Jackson sent a letter to the school and parents on February 13, indicating the cause of the boy’s illness was unconfirmed but suspected to be meningococcal.

In the letter, Jackson said though the risk of another case was small, she advised parents to be aware of any symptoms of the disease.

Some common symptoms of meningococcal are fever, headache, nausea, aversion to light, neck stiffness (late symptom) and purple/dark blue rashes (late symptom).

Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi’s Te Ropu Poa, who heads the Māori health provider based in the Kaikohe area, first learned of the boy’s condition after his passing through a Facebook notice from the school.

“We should have been contacted immediately,” she said.

“[It’s] far too casual for my liking.” When she asked the NDHB why Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi had not been informed, Poa said DHB staff were apologetic.

However, Poa believed this experience reflected the current issues with the health sector in how a lack of coordination prevented real progress.

“It’s a case-by-case approach rather than asking how well is your community, and, if they’re not well, how are people accessing our primary care services.

“I have to speak up for wh ānau that know very little about how to access good quality health services and we all have to contribute and work better together, so that we can take care of our whānau better.”

Poa said some crucial health practices had been interrupted by Covid19. Before the pandemic, Poa and her staff would visit eight local schools three times a week to do throat-swabbing.

This had since been reduced, removing crucial opportunities for health staff to kōrero with teachers and tamariki to identify any other health issues.

With another tamariki from the Hokianga recently hospitalised due to rheumatic fever, Poa said it was critical to fix these issues before more whānau suffer.

Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi was currently working with the boy’s wh ānau. Poa described them as “grieving but resilient”.

In a statement on Monday, Jackson said this incident indicated the unfortunate truth that even with appropriate treatment, meningococcal infections were fatal in 5 to 10 per cent of cases.

Tautoro School was closed briefly for a deep clean following the incident, under instruction from the NDHB.

Principal Tracey Simeon said her young pupil’s death had rocked the school’s 148-pupil roll and the wider community.

“We are very much a wha¯nau school, virtually everyone is related so that’s probably the shock — it’s not just a student, it’s whanau.”

Simeon said the boy was a “wellloved” member of the school, with a passion for learning.

Echoing Poa, Simeon lamented the loss of regular swabbing for her pupils and the extra benefit those visits provided to rural wha¯nau.

Three Northlanders died of the meningococcal W strain in 2018, which sparked a mass vaccination campaign by NDHB, aimed at immunising children and youths aged 9 months to under 5 years and 13 to under 20 years.

The strain of this recent case is unknown.