A family has spoke of their devastation following their daughter's death after a celebratory holiday to Bali. Bella Fidler, 23, returned suffering from "flu-like symptoms" and believed she had picked up Covid-19 on her travels to the Indonesian island to celebrate her law degree ending, reports the Daily Mirror.
She went to hospital on Australia's Gold Coast in December, but quickly became "critically ill" and had a seizure. "The doctors eventually diagnosed her with bacterial meningitis," her parents, Blair and Jodie, shared in a statement to Meningitis Centre Australia.
"Within hours our lives were shattered by the devastating news that Bella had suffered extensive brain damage and was not expected to survive."
Like many in Australia, Bella had undergone immunisation while at high school, but this specific strain of the disease was not covered by the immunisation program. Her parents explained: "We later found out that the national immunisation program schedule does not include the deadly meningococcal B strain."
The family want to raise awareness to tell the public that there's a vaccine available for the B strain - which costs $200AUD (£110), but are urging the local government to include it in their free immunisation program.
South Australia is currently the only state in Australia that includes the meningococcal B strain vaccine in its free program, but some states provide it for at-risk groups.
This is all while considering that strain B is the most prevalent in Australia, with some 396 people dying as a result of the disease between 1997 and 2016.
"A sudden death like this sends shockwaves that resonate far wider and longer than anyone can imagine," Bella's parents said. "Bella epitomised joy for life and we feel so blessed that she was able to have so many wonderful experiences and adventures during her short time here on earth."
It was revealed last month that meningitis cases across England doubled in the past year. A leading charity warned people not to become complacent about the potentially fatal disease.
Meningitis infects the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and is usually caused by a virus or bacteria. Most people recover within ten days, but in some rare cases it can lead to death.
New data from the UK Health Security Agency shows that cases of Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) have increased nationwide from just 80 in 2020-2021 to 205 cases in the 12 months from July 2021 to June 2022.
The figures also show reveal that 179 of these were caused by MenB (meningococcal group B) with most of those (84 cases) occurring in adolescents and young adults aged between 15 and 24 years old.
The numbers indicate that almost one third of MenB cases happened in children under five and a similar number (32 per cent) of MenB cases occurred in adults.
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