A BOLTON schoolboy has become the third person to contract meningitis in the area within a week.

The 15-year-old boy was taken ill on Monday and is now believed to be making good progress and recovering in Bolton General Hospital.

The boy is a pupil at Harper Green High School. Pupils in the boy's class in Year 10 were given letters to send home to their families informing them about the illness and advising that staff and children at the school are not in danger.

A spokeswoman for the Farnworth school said everyone was treating the advice very calmly and there has been no talk of immunisations for pupils. Dr Robert Aston, Bolton's consultant in communicable disease control said there was no connection between the schoolboy's case and the others.

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