The parents of a 23-year-old who passed away shortly after contracting a strain of Meningococcal not commonly vaccinated against are pleading with the government to take action to safeguard other people’s children. Bella Fidler informed her parents that she was feeling unwell in December last year. She died within 24 hours. “It’s difficult to believe that someone young and healthy can walk into an Australian hospital and be brain-dead five hours later,” said Bella’s father, Blair Fidler, in an interview with Sunrise. Bella suspected she might have contracted COVID-19, and her parents Blair and Jodie Fidler stated that she initially had a fever but it had improved. Around 1:30 a.m. the following day, Bella woke her parents up and expressed that she didn’t feel well. Her parents took her to the John Flynn Private Hospital, near their home in Tugun, where her condition rapidly worsened. Bella experienced a seizure for the first time in her life and did not regain consciousness afterward. She later suffered a cardiac arrest and was put on life support before being transferred to the neurology department at Gold Coast University Hospital. Tests indicated that she was suffering from bacterial meningitis, which later revealed that she had contracted meningococcal B. Although Bella’s parents believed she was fully vaccinated against meningococcal, they discovered that was not the case after her death. She had received the free meningococcal vaccine in high school, which covers types A, C, W, and Y, but not the B strain. A privately available meningococcal vaccine that covers the B strain costs approximately $380, with only South Australia offering it for free. Blair and Jodie Fidler, Bella’s parents, were astonished to learn that the state-based vaccine program did not include the B strain of meningococcal disease. Blair said, “I guess the thing that really shocked us is the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends this for all infants and teenagers, but when we spoke to our friends and our family, almost nobody was aware of this.” The family is now requesting that the Queensland government incorporate vaccination for meningococcal B, now thought to be the most prevalent strain of the virus in Australia, into the immunisation program. A petition has been created to urge the government to add the vaccine to the state schedule, and Bella’s parents have launched it in the hopes of drawing attention to the issue and prompting immediate action. Currumbin MP Laura Gerber is also supporting the petition, emphasizing that waiting for a deadly outbreak is unnecessary. “Meningococcal B is a vaccine-preventable disease,” said Gerber. “And if our children are given the B strain as part of the state-based immunisation program, then they can be protected.”
After the death of Bella, her parents request action as they believed she was safeguarded against meningococcal
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