An Adelaide teenager diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease has died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
St Peter's College prefect Jack Klemich, 18, had been taken to hospital in a critical condition.
SA Health Department says he is the fourth person to die from invasive meningococcal disease in South Australia.
The last death was in 2006.
Chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips says everyone who had recent contact with the victim is being traced.
"We trace the contacts and we give them treatment," he said.
"Unfortunately meningococcal disease does have a 10-15 per cent mortality rate and, sadly, this young man has died."
In a statement, the college says it is saddened by the death and the teenager was a wonderful sportsman and a school prefect.
The school says it has no other cases of the disease but it will do everything it can to ensure the safety and welfare of its staff and students.
There have been nine cases of meningococcal disease in South Australia this year, compared with 19 for the whole of 2008.
Professor Phillips says people need to be alert to the symptoms of meningococcal disease.
"Fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and [it] can cause a rash," he said.
