A West Australian woman in her 20s has died after contracting meningococcal disease.  The Health Department says she's the fifth victim the W strain of the meningococcal disease in the state so far this year.

Although the identiity of the patient isn't being revealed publicly, officials are contacting people who've had contact with her and are advising them to seek medical attention.

"It's very sad to lose anybody in the community to such a particularly nasty disease, but Western Australia is doing everything we can to protect West Australian citizens from meningococcal, particularly meningococcal W," West Australian Health Minister Roger Cook said, as quoted by the ABC.  "We've got a community campaign vaccination program which is taking place in Kalgoorlie.  In addition to that we've also got a statewide program focused on the 15 to 17-year-olds."

Australia has now had five deaths out of 40 cases of the various strains of the disease this year; that's way up from 23 cases with three deaths in 2016.  And the Australia Medical Association is warning of possibly many more infections, because spring and early summer are the peak seasons for meningococcal disease. 

That has many calling on the Federal Government to get involved and establish a national vaccination program.  The AMA Western Australia's president Dr. Omar Khorshid says parents are shelling out hundreds of dollars to protect their children from the various strains.

"The question for government, and the question that the community is going to be asking more and more, is why aren’t these subsidised vaccinations available to babies, which are one of the high-risk groups," Dr. Khorshid said to Perth Now.  "I know the answer to that - it is because of the cost."

Dr. Khorshid says it's a matter of values:  "At some point we've got to say that preventing this catastrophic disease is worth the investment."

Right now, free ACWY vaccines are available only to teenagers aged 15 to 19, and subsidised vaccinations against C strain are available for infants. Dr. Khorshid says babies shouldget free vaccinations against all strains of the disease.

Likewise, Mr. Cook says a national vaccination program will help Australian states and territories protect their youth.

"We're doing the heavy lifting on behalf of the Federal Government, as is often the case in Western Australia, and it's time the Federal Government got its act together and introduced a national program so we don't have these outbreaks," said Cook.