Janet Lomax runs a pre-school nursery near Bolton in Yorkshire. She knows all about meningitis because 13 years ago her son Nicki contracted the disease when he was two years old. Thankfully, he survived the ordeal and made a complete recovery. Then, five years ago, the unbelievable happened.
Two of the children who attended her nursery were struck down with the disease on the very same day. Janet remembers it all as if it were yesterday.
'We received a phone call from the doctor of communicable diseases to say one of our children had been taken to hospital with meningococcal meningitis. Three hours later we had another call to say there was a second child with meningitis. There was talk of issuing antibiotics after the first child was diagnosed, but we were told it was an isolated case. Then, when we heard about the second case, everyone who had had any contact with either of the two children was given antibiotics as a precaution.
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