A TEENAGE boy who celebrated the most devastating of birthdays days after suddenly losing his mum to meningococcal disease has himself been rushed to hospital.

Sunshine Coast school student Bailey Dunkinson, who turned 13 yesterday, was admitted to hospital on his birthday after falling ill and vomiting.

A spokeswoman for Sunshine Coast health told news.com.au the boy has now been discharged. But the health scare has prompted doctors to warn members of the public about symptoms of the sudden killer.

Bailey's mum, Julianne Dunkinson, died on Sunday morning after being affected by a lethal strain of the bacteria on Friday.

Doctors had given antibiotics to "close contacts" of Ms Dunkinson and had kept in touch with her inner circle, holding particular concerns for those who shared her home in the small town of Pomona.

She died from meningococcal disease on Sunday morning.

The 37-year-old council worker was said to be in high spirits during her line dancing class in Noosa on Thursday night, and appeared fine when she presented at work at Noosa Council on Thursday morning.

As she started feeling unwell throughout the day, friends say the mother-of-two's condition quickly progressed as she fainted and vomited and was admitted to hospital after presenting at a GP.

Close friend Brett Jenkins was expecting Julianne to make the trip to Brisbane on Saturday for his birthday, but had a feeling she wasn't going to make it after she didn't respond to his text messages.

"I'd contacted her on Friday and messaged her about three times, and it wasn't like her to ignore anyone, she was so generous and polite like that," he said.

"So I started ringing other friends and heard that her mum had contacted her line dancing instructor up there, and she was very sick."

She told the Courier-Mail a GP checked Ms Dunkinson, did blood tests and "everything seemed OK".

"From there she went home and she got worse and called the ambulance and that was kind of it," she said.
"By Friday night she was in an induced coma and never woke up."

Friends and colleagues of Ms Dunkinson have told news.com.au her death was "a complete shock".

"Waking up to some devastating news this morning is something you hoped you'd never have to hear ... I'm just shattered right now," Ange Jesse wrote on Facebook.

"Another Valuable lesson in life today......!!!" another friend wrote.

"Life sometimes gets taken away from some people way too early when there was sooo much to look forward to."

Mr Jenkins described Ms Dunkinson as "just an amazing person".

"We're all just shocked at how quick it's happened," he said.

The long-time friend said the only positive to come out of Ms Dunkinson's death was to see how strong her teenage sons, Bailey, 13, and Matt, 17, were in coping with the situation.

"Her son (Matt) contacted me to give me the details of the funeral, I told him we were all in shock and really thinking of them," he said.

"He just wrote back saying thanks and he really appreciated the support, he knew his mum had a lot of good friends and he wanted them to be there.

"I mean, what extraordinary strength from a teenage kid."

But the family had more drama to deal with, with Bailey under observation at Nambour General Hospital with his vomiting symptoms.

The Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service yesterday advised Ms Dunkinson's family would be given antibiotics to mitigate the risk of contacting the disease and her colleagues had been advised to seek medical help if they experience the symptoms.

Ms Dunkinson's grieving brother Ken Young bravely fronted media yesterday because he wanted to get the message out about the "senseless killer".

"It's a very severe disease — you don't have time to muck around with it," he said.

"Within 12 hours my sister was fighting for her life."

Mr Young told the Sunshine Coast Dailyhe wanted everyone to found out the symptoms of meningococcal.

"I want them to Google it, because it doesn't take long to take somebody down," he said.

"My sister collapsed at work on Friday morning and went to the GP and at 10 o'clock in the morning she had blood tests done.

"She had the symptoms, but nothing turned up. But by six o'clock she was on life support in the intensive care unit."

Ms Dunkinson's death is the first fatality from the bacteria in the Queensland region in eight years.

Six cases of meningococcal disease were reported to the Sunshine Coast public health unit in last year, but Ms Dunkinson's case was the first to be reported in 2015. There have been five cases this year statewide.

Her death has prompted warnings about the bacteria which can cause meningitis (inflammation of the membrane lining of the brain and spinal cord) and/or septicaemia (blood poisoning).

Public health physician Dr Andrew Langley said while it is a very rare disease it was important for people to be aware of the symptoms.

"Some people who develop the disease have had a preceding respiratory tract infection, others have had no obvious illness and just become rapidly ill," he said.

"You can get meningococcal disease at any time in your life, but the highest rates of infection are in very young children."

Meningitis symptoms include headache, fever, vomiting, joint pains, drowsiness or confusion, rash and fitting or convulsions.

The mortality rate for meningococcal disease is about five to 10 per cent, Dr Langley said.

"Even when it's treated early sometimes there's just a progressive deterioration," he said.