Using the national guidelines to manage a meningococcal group C outbreak in a Brisbane boarding school--some discretionary judgements are needed.

The management of an organisational outbreak of meningococcal disease using the national Guidelines for the early clinical and public health management of meningococcal disease in Australia (the Guidelines), could be considered a relatively straightforward task. Nevertheless, discretional judgements are often still required by the outbreak control team, as no guidelines can fully cover every eventuality. The greatest challenges generated by this outbreak did not result from the magnitude of the intervention, but from the difficulties in defining the margins of the intervention in the face of heightened community and professional concern. Also Public Health decisions and communication strategies needed to be responsive to these concerns.