A third case of meningococcal disease is adding renewed weight to calls for the vaccine to be made free to all youth, before they leave secondary school

An 18-year-old Canterbury University student has been hospitalised in Christchurch.

Last year Ashburton couple Claire and Gerard Rushton appealed to the Health Select Committee to provide a free meningococcal vaccine programme for all high school students.

Gerard, the chairperson of the New Zealand Meningitis Foundation, says more than six and a half thousand people have signed the petition.

He says alarmingly there's been a 72 percent increase in the disease year-on-year last year - and 70 percent of those cases are Maori and Pasifika.