It took fewer than 12 hours for a Northern Territory infant struck down with meningococcal symptoms to die.
The baby, who died late on Sunday night, attended a childcare centre in the greater Darwin region, where NT Centre for Disease Control staff will on Tuesday provide preventative antibiotics.
CDC Community Physician Dr Charles Douglas says the daycare centre shouldn't be shut down, but a vaccine may be offered to close contacts pending a post-mortem examination.
"It is very hard to catch... it's not like the flu or the common cold," he said.
Dr Douglas said although treatment was sought early for the rare illness, the child's infection progressed too rapidly.
"We have every sympathy for the family in this tragic event," he said.
Laboratory test results due midweek should also determine whether or not the death is linked to a current and unprecedented outbreak of meningococcal W strain in central Australia.
But Dr Douglas says that's "extremely unlikely".
Last week, the 27th case of the W strain of the deadly disease was confirmed for 2017 in central Australian indigenous communities. There were only three cases in 2016.
The majority of those affected were Aboriginal kids younger than 10.
The NT government has mounted a large-scale immunisation campaign in the affected regions in an attempt to prevent it from spreading to the Top End.
A free vaccine will be offered to all people aged between 12 months and 19 years living in remote communities and all Aboriginal people aged between 12 months and 19 years living in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine.
Labor is also co-ordinating with other jurisdictions after a spate of cases were reported on South Australia's traditional APY lands.
There had previously been no deaths from the disease in the NT since 2015, but Dr Douglas said there's been a "considerable" number of deaths across the country this year.
"I think there's an understandable anxiety," he said.
"It's happening nationally... the number of cases has increased, and we're seeing a particularly bad slice of that."
The government plans to roll out the vaccination program to all one-year-old NT children by early 2018, and there are ongoing negotiations with the commonwealth to develop it into a nation-wide initiative.
