NL Health Services says an outbreak of “invasive meningococcal disease” linked to a social network in central Newfoundland appears to be contained with the risk to the general public being low.

Meningococcal bacteria is common and present in approximately one in ten people with no symptoms, but in rare cases it can become invasive, entering the bloodstream and getting into the central nervous system, causing serious illness and possibly death.

Treatment involves hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics.

The Medical Officer of Health with NLHS, Dr. Mark McElvie, says all contacts of those infected have been notified by health officials and offered vaccinations.

He says the disease is spread primarily through saliva.

“It doesn’t spread as easy as some of the other infections that we’re maybe more familiar with, so…think of any way that we might exchange saliva with somebody; that’s how this spreads. So it requires quite close contact like sharing eating utensils, sharing water bottles, being really close up with somebody, kissing somebody.”