A SECOND student at a Hampshire college contracted meningitis just six weeks after a colleague died from the illness.

The female teenager from Winchester's Peter Symonds College, who has not been named, was admitted to hospital after suddenly becoming sick.

Doctors later confirmed the youngster had tested positively for the meningococcal virus, though had responded well to treatment and had since been discharged.

The news comes just six weeks after 19-year-old Ade Gibbs from Harestock in Winchester died from meningitis after contracting the virus while still studying at the college.

Peter Symonds principal Neil Hopkins has written to parents to tell them of the second infection and to reassure them that their children were safe at the Owen's Road college.

Mr Hopkins said he had been contacted by the Health Protection Agency, which had confirmed the cases were not linked and that the risk to other students or staff was low.

A spokesman for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health Protection Agency said the two students did not mix socially or take classes together, but that the most recently infected student's closest friends had all now been treated with antibiotics as a precaution.