A student named Claudia Gill was just 18 years old when she was hours from death, when meningococcus bacteria attacked her body. Two years later, the university student is warning everyone to beware of the symptoms. After returning home from a long holiday in Queensland, the New South Wales woman was plagued by fatigue, her ears were very sensitive to noise and a ringing echoed in her head. Her throat stiffened, and she vomited and fainted. The young woman was immediately taken to hospital, where doctors determined she had a potentially fatal meningococcus B bacteria infection. Doctors told her that if she had come to the hospital any later, she would most likely have died. Her recovery required five nights in hospital, weeks of rest and a slow return to work and study. For the past two years, Ms Gill has been experiencing more regular and severe headaches. When she was released from the hospital, she wanted to find the community of people who had been through the disease and learn what had attacked her body.
Gill then began speaking to community and advocacy groups and realised she would be a good test case for education about the disease.
“It happened so quickly, it was pretty scary,” Ms Gill said in an interview. She wants people to know the symptoms so they can act quickly if they suspect an infection.
Gill developed only a mild rash, a later symptom often associated with meningococcal. The rash was followed by increasing sensitivity to light and sound, a stiff neck, nausea, a stiff back, vomiting and finally a completely stiff body and headache.
“If I had had the rash earlier, we would have acted sooner. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to know all the symptoms,” she said.
Meningococcus is a type of bacteria that can enter the bloodstream and cause blood poisoning. Vaccinations against the A, C, W and Y variants are free in Australia for newborns, people with asplenia and polysplenia, complement deficiency and those being treated with eculizumab. Gill had meningococcal B. The vaccine against it is free for people with the immune conditions mentioned above and for newborns of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Gill is a student in Newcastle, but is originally from Wollongong.
In late 2022, 23-year-old Brayden Chater faced the same fate as Gill. He became brain-dead in Wollongong, and was diagnosed with meningococcal B. His condition deteriorated rapidly within 24 hours. He said he felt like he only had a fever, started having convulsions and was unresponsive. Doctors could not tell Gill where he contracted the bacteria.
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