A YOUNG adult is recovering in a West Australian hospital after being diagnosed with meningococcal serogroup B disease.
There have been 38 cases of the potentially deadly disease reported so far this year including 27 serogroup W, eight serogroup B and three serogroup Y meningococcal infections.
Meningococcal disease in WA peaked at 86 cases in 2000 and dropped to 16 in 2013.
A total of 46 cases were notified in WA in 2017, double the number reported in 2016 and the most in any year since 2005.
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As a result of the increase in serogroup W and Y disease in WA over the past three years, a funded State-wide meningococcal ACWY vaccination program for adolescents aged 15 to 19 years started in 2017.
The State-funded meningococcal ACWY vaccine program was expanded to include children aged one to four-years-old in January this year.