As of Friday afternoon, a 15-year-old Launceston boy diagnosed with meningococcal B, remained in a stable condition at Launceston General Hospital. 

With this the first confirmed case of the disease in the state’s North, communicable diseases clinical director Faline Howes said the public health response remained ongoing. 

“We are working with the boy’s family, just to follow up who constitutes a close contact and the public health will deal with that under national guidelines,” Dr Howes said. 

“As part of our normal public health response, we have been in contact with the [boy’s] school and we have sent out information to the school, to provide to all staff, students and parents.

“For privacy and confidentially concerns, we won’t be giving any other clinical details about the case.”

There have now been three confirmed cases of meningococcal B in Tasmania this year – one in the South, the North and the North-West – including an East Devonport girl who was diagnosed earlier this week.  

A further six confirmed meningococcal cases this year were all strain W of the disease. 

However, Dr Howes said the most recent cases were different to the outbreak experienced in the state’s South earlier this year. 

“This [Launceston] case does not constitute an outbreak,” Dr Howes said.

“The outbreak that we saw earlier this year was a cluster of cases of the meningococcal W strain, in the northern suburbs of Hobart.

“It was called a community outbreak because its three cases of the same strain, which is W, over a short period of time, over a matter of weeks, and also in a very geographically tight area.”