Meningitis cases total six

No children turned up for classes at the 130-pupil school

There are now six known or suspected cases of meningitis in south Wales, Assembly Health Minister Jane Hutt has confirmed.

In a statement to the National Assembly for Wales, Ms Hutt said the cases did not appear to be related.

The latest known victim, seven-month-old Josie Thomas from the Rhondda, is being treated at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

Pupils and staff will be offered antibiotics

It is not yet known what strain of the disease she has contracted.

Her home in Pontygwaith is five miles away from Ynysboeth infants school where 57-year-old dinner lady Carol Morgan died on Monday.

Just two days before, she had fallen ill with a headache and raging temperature.

Four-year-old Garreg Hughes - a pupil from the same school - is now recovering at the University Hospital. He was diagnosed as suffering from the B-strain for which there is no vaccination

Another four year old child from Rhigos is also known to have contracted the brain disease.

In Swansea, a child is being treated with antibiotics for suspected meningitis ten days after a student was diagnosed with the disease.

Bro Taf Health Authority is currently investigating whether there is a link between the cases and health officials have been offering antibiotics to pupils and staff at the school as a precaution.

Earlier in the week, the authority had called an emergency outbreak control team meeting on Monday for all doctors, nurses, council officers and school staff involved.

Anxious parents had been keeping their children home from the 130-pupil Ynysboeth school on Monday after the cases of the disease were confirmed.

Dr Mark Temple: Check for signs

In a bid to placate them, consultant in communicable disease control Dr Mark Temple said meningitis was a "relatively rare" condition.

"Symptoms to look out for include fever, nausea and vomiting, stiff neck, back and joint pain, severe headache, sensitivity to light and sometimes a rash of tiny purple bruises," he said.

A mass vaccination against the C-strain of the virus began throughout the UK last year partly as a result of last year's outbreak in Pontypridd, south Wales.

Meanwhile Assembly Health committee chairman Kirsty Williams AM has called for research into why there appeared to be a "particularly high" number of cases in the south Wales Valleys.