THE son of a Blackburn ambulanceman was fighting for his life today after being struck down by suspected meningitis.

The four-year-old is in Pendlebury Children's Hospital, Manchester, where health officials today described his condition as "very poorly." The boy was taken to the accident and emergency unit at Blackburn Royal Infirmary on Monday night where his condition rapidly deteriorated. He was then immediately transferred to Pendlebury.

Colleagues of the boy's father, an ambulance technician based at Blackburn Ambulance Station, were today hoping that the child would pull through.

John Marsden, Blackburn Ambulance Station's district manager, said the boy's father was on duty when he received a call on Monday afternoon to inform him his son was unwell. He returned to his Blackburn home and took his son to casualty as a precaution.

Mr Marsden said: "He took his son to be checked over and at that point there was no panic. But his condition rapidly deteriorated while he was at hospital.

"The boy and his family are in all our thoughts and we are hoping he can pull through." Roberta Marshall, East Lancashire Health Authority's consultant in communicable disease control, today said that the boy was critically ill.

She urged parents to be vigilant and to be on the look out for meningitis symptoms. The case is the first of suspected meningitis of the autumn.

Last year, East Lancashire was hit by a flurry of meningitis cases with 20 reported between Christmas Eve and the end of January.

Of those, 14 were pre-schoolchildren, one went to primary school, two to high school and three were adults.

The new meningitis C vaccine has also started to arrive at clinics and doctors' surgeries across East Lancashire and health authority officials have advised people to keep contacting their doctors to ask if the vaccine is available.

The new vaccine will protect people against meningitis C - but not the deadly B strain of the disease.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph meningitis helpline number is 0990 446644. Enter selection 8219.

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