A Sussex school today urged parents not to panic after a teacher contracted meningitis three weeks after a pupil died from the disease.

The male teacher at Bognor Regis

Community College is responding to treatment after being stricken by the disease on December 30.

Pupil Martin Finch, 14, died on December 8 after contracting the Meningitis C strain of the disease. It is believed the teacher contracted the same strain.

But in a letter sent out to parents, head teacher Les Savins said although he understood concerns about two cases involving the school in such a short space of time, he believed they should be regarded as separate.

He said the incubation period was normally four to five days and so the staff member had contracted the disease while on holiday and not while at the school.

He added that the teacher had been away in France at the time when he was most likely to have acquired the bacteria.

After Martin's death, the 1,800-pupil school brought forward a mass vaccination programme for students organised by West Sussex Health Authority and most pupils have now been

inoculated against the

disease.

A health authority spokesman said the results of final tests to confirm the strain of meningitis contracted by the teacher are expected from London next week.

Parents are calling on the college to organise a seminar on meningitis so they can talk to experts about the disease

face to face and air their

concerns.

The latest outbreak has sparked fears from parents whose children have still not been given the vaccine and some are threatening to keep their children away.

Many students missed school at the end of last term following Martin's death and more are now expected to miss the start of the new term as well.

The school has issued parents and students with explanatory leaflets with phone lines that offer more advice and information about the disease.

A parent whose three children are at the school said: "It's not good enough telling us just to ring the school.

"We want a seminar or a chance to voice our concerns.

"It is a very worrying situation."

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