<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A Queensland mum who says her daughter is lucky to be alive has joined growing calls for the meningococcal B vaccine to be made available to all children and teens in Australia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Pamela Appleton's daughter, Kristy, was 17 when she fell suddenly and gravely ill in August last year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kristy, an extraordinarily fit athlete, had just returned from competing in the waterskiing world championship in Canada, where she finished second in her age division.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/birth-rates-ageing-parents-what-it-means-for-australia/f136cbc0-6e5d-442e-8175-e986aaf40aab" rel="" target="" title="The truth behind Australia's birth rate 'crisis'"><strong><span>The truth behind Australia's birth rate 'crisis'</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The day we arrived back home in Brisbane, that's when our world was rocked by meningococcal B," Appleton said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The family was trying to beat jetlag by staying awake, but Kristy was tired and Appleton said she was alarmed to hear her daughter moaning in the afternoon.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I ran downstairs. Kristy couldn't move, and her neck was really sore, so I rang triple zero," Appleton said.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/mums-vaccine-plea-after-fit-athletic-daughter-almost-dies-from-meningococcal-b/475f67ce-49c7-4c78-81d2-3bb3f771a608" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kristy was taken to a local public hospital, where blood tests showed she had COVID-19. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Appleton said that despite her protests, Kristy was discharged from the hospital early the next morning, with doctors believing it was just COVID-19 to blame for her illness.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Back home, Kristy was still extremely sick and complaining of a sore head, neck and sensitivity to light.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She then began vomiting.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Both thoroughly exhausted, Appleton and her daughter tried to rest.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We woke up at 1am in the morning with Kristy delusional and screaming. I went in and turned the light on, and she just screamed, 'Turn the light off'," Appleton said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"So I grabbed a mask, and I masked her, and then I rang the ambulance. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"They turned up immediately under sirens, and I said, 'There is something seriously wrong.'"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At her mother's request, Kristy was taken to a local private hospital, where, suspecting she had bacterial meningitis, the doctors sprang into action.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The doctor said, 'I don't want to alarm you, but if I don't treat this now, we're going to lose her'," Appleton said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kristy was put on IV antibiotics and given a lumbar puncture, which showed she had meningococcal B.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After receiving the right treatment, Kristy turned a corner and recovered, even managing to go home from hospital a week later.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than a year on, Kristy still suffers from some fatigue, but has made a remarkable recovery. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Back to competing in waterskiiing, the Year 12 student was crowned world jump champion in August.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I just want no-one else to go through what I went through," Kristy told </span><a href="http://9news.com.au"><span>9news.com.au</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's not nice, it's really cruel.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Appleton said she had no idea there was a meningococcal B strain when Kristy got sick.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Last year, the Queensland government rolled out a free meningococcal B for young people under 20, with teens in Year 10 receiving the free shot at school alongside a federally funded vaccine for strains A, C, W and Y.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>However, Kristy was a year too late to receive the free vaccine for the B strain.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Kristy was in Year 10, in 2023, so she missed out," Appleton said, adding she was horrified to learn that her daughter and other kids the same age were unknowingly going around unvaccinated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In addition to Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory are the only other states and territories choosing to fund their own meningococcal B vaccination programs to make up the shortfall in the National Immunisation Program.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Victoria, NSW, the ACT and Tasmania are yet to do so.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Appleton and Kristy are sharing her story following </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/heartbroken-mum-calls-for-vaccines-to-be-funded-after-teens-sudden-death/aa8c87ce-300c-4336-b9b0-5154129f699a" rel="" target="" title="the tragic news of the death of 16-year-old Melbourne schoolboy Levi Syer"><span>the tragic news of the death of 16-year-old Melbourne schoolboy Levi Syer</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Levi died last month, within 24 hours of contracting meningococcal B.  </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Levi's devastated mother Norliah Syer-Peterson told 9news.com.au she was determined to spread the message that vaccines were needed for all Australian children and teenagers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A </span><a href="https://www.change.org/p/make-the-meningococcal-b-strain-free-just-like-the-meningococcal-acwy-vaccine"><span>Change.org</span></a><span> petition calling on the federal government to make the meningococcal B vaccine free for all Australians, started by one of Levi's school friends, has so far attracted almost 19,000 signatures.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Appleton said she was heartbroken to hear of Levi's death.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I just don't understand why it's not part of the vaccination program for all Australians, to me, it's just ludicrous," she said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Why are they playing Russian roulette with children's lives?"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In response to Levi's death, the Royal Australian College of GPs in Victoria (RACGP) said the Victorian government needed to act. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If we don't boost vaccination rates, more lives will be at risk, including young people like Levi with their whole life ahead of them," RACGP Victoria chair Dr Anita Muñoz said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"By providing the meningococcal B vaccine free of charge for at-risk groups we can save lives across Victoria. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Meningococcal B is a devastating disease, it kills 5–10 per cent of patients and leaves 10–20 per cent of those who survive with brain damage, hearing loss or a learning disability." </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A Department of Health spokesperson told </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/"><span>9news.com.au</span></a><span> the inclusion of any vaccine on the federal program was contingent on a positive recommendation from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), based on an assessment of clinical and cost-effectiveness. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"To date, the PBAC has not received an application from pharmaceutical companies seeking expanded eligibility for meningococcal B vaccine," the spokesperson said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There have been 13 cases of meningococcal B in Victoria so far this year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A spokesperson for Victoria's Health Department said: "The Chief Health Officer monitors the prevalence of meningococcal cases in Victoria, which informs their independent health advice on vaccination settings.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The Commonwealth's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee does not currently recommend a meningococcal B vaccine for the broader community."</span></div></div>