A 12-year-old girl has died of a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis less than two days after complaining of a sore throat.
Porchia Fredericks, of Temperance Town in Gordon's Bay in the Western Cape, died in the Red Cross Children's Hospital early on Saturday, about 36 hours after telling her mother her throat was sore.
Now her parents, brother and sister, teachers and 40 classmates at Temperance Town Primary School have been given emergency doses of antibiotics to protect them from the contagious killer disease that causes an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain or spinal cord.
Cape Town's director of health, Dr Ivan Toms, said there had been 42 cases of meningococcal meningitis in Greater Cape Town in the past year. Between five percent and 10 percent of them had been fatal.
Toms said the danger of the disease was that it could progress extremely quickly from fever to coma and death. This form of meningitis was less common than viral meningitis - and also more dangerous.
Porchia, who had just scored 100 percent for maths in her June exams, had loved netball and swimming, said her parents, Mark and Sharon Fredericks.
Still in shock, they said she had come home from school on Thursday complaining of a sore throat. On Friday after school, Porchia seemed fine but hot, so her mother took her to the Gordon's Bay Clinic where a nurse found she had a temperature of 40°C. A normal temperature is 37°C.
As they left the clinic shortly after 2pm, Porchia seemed to struggle to walk, but by the time they reached home she was feeling better.
Sharon Fredericks said her daughter had had some tea and was laughing, and all appeared to be well. But her condition had worsened rapidly.
Mark Fredericks said that at about 6pm his wife had phoned him to say Porchia was nauseous and her eyes had rolled back in head. She could not walk and appeared confused.
They rushed Porchia to a doctor in the Strand, who told them to take her to the Hottentots Holland Hospital in Somerset West.
Dark red spots started appearing all over her body.
Her mother, who by then suspected her daughter might have meningitis, called a nurse and shouted that they were being too "slow".
The nurse called the doctor who ordered that she be transferred to the Red Cross Children's Hospital. In the meantime, he put Porchia into quarantine and gave the nursing staff preventative antibiotics.
Red Cross Hospital staff had fought valiantly to save her life, her parents said.
"They did their best to save her; their service was very good," Sharon Fredericks said.
But Porchia died shortly after being admitted.
Hospital spokesperson Diana Ross confirmed that Porchia had been admitted in the early hours of Saturday and had died soon afterwards from meningococcal meningitis.
Toms said the meningitis bacteria could be found in the nasal passages and spread easily - especially in institutions such as army barracks and boarding houses - through sneezing or touch.
Porchia's 15-year-old sister Marilise and 18-year-old brother Craig said they would miss everything about their little sister, especially her jokes.
In a tribute to Porchia at her primary school, she was described as a child with lots of promise.
She was "a child that never uttered a loud word towards her friends, educators and peers. A child that never harmed other children. A child that always gave her last to her fellow friends - last but not least, we know that you are happy where you find yourself nowadays and that you keep an eye over us, the beloved that you left behind. God Bless".
Porchia will be buried from the New Apostolic Church, Temperance Town, at 10am on Saturday. - Staff Writer