Two-Year-Old Netanya Toddler Dies After Sudden Meningococcal Infection, Mother Launches Vaccine Campaign

Eleai Meir Gabai, a two-year-old from Netanya, died at Soroka Hospital about 26 hours after he first developed what seemed like an ordinary fever. His mother, Reut Gabai, says he had been a completely healthy child with no prior illnesses, and that the family had no idea there was a vaccine against the meningococcal bacterium that killed him.

Gabai recounts that on Sunday evening he took Nurofen, went back to sleep, and woke up eating and drinking normally the next day. By late morning he had become pale and quiet, and at 11:00 his father noticed a small bruise-like spot on the boy’s arm. A clinic doctor immediately told him to “get in the car and rush to the emergency room,” apparently recognizing the danger from the skin discoloration.

At Soroka, the child arrived covered in bruising on his face and body. Within four minutes seven doctors surrounded him, suspecting an invasive bloodstream infection. He was still conscious at first, but his condition collapsed quickly. Half an hour later he needed CPR in intensive care. By Tuesday afternoon, the family was told the situation was dire, and after another resuscitation attempt doctors told them, “I’m sorry, we did everything.”

Gabai says the family said goodbye in the ICU, kissed and hugged him, and she smelled the shampoo still in his hair. She describes him as a beloved, sensitive child who was born after years of waiting, and says she learned she was pregnant before October 7 and carried the pregnancy during wartime. Now, from her shiva, she is demanding greater awareness of meningococcus and that the B vaccine be added to Israel’s health basket.

In the article, Prof. Israel Potsman of Maccabi Healthcare Services explains that meningococcus can cause meningitis or sepsis, with the latter carrying mortality of about 30%. He says warning signs include high fever, chills, headache, vomiting, unconsciousness, and especially blue spots or subcutaneous bruises, which require urgent hospital care. The Health Ministry and the Israel Pediatric Association recommend vaccinating all children against meningococcal B, especially infants and toddlers from two months to age two, but the shot is not part of the routine immunization schedule.