Meningitis outbreak

[Flipitoff]

I’m freaking out a bit

DD has been here all day after travelling from uni yesterday. Her housemate is really poorly and now I’ve just seen the news about the meningitis outbreak at her uni.

Her housemate is in the house on her own now - I’ve told DD to call the uni and let them know. Worried that DD has been here with us all day in case she gets sick

@Abdnshireoutdoorsy completely irrelevant to this thread but so nice to read that Aberdeen Boots have a *waiting" list. Send me to pendants' corner

@Abdnshireoutdoorsy….. Ah, please don’t do that… beating yourself up. It’s precisely what I do, and there is no point wasting your energy reliving what was or wasn’t done. You tried your best at Christmas, the flu wave was beyond your control, and I hope you had a fabulous time with your son on his trip back home 😻. He would probably be just like mine if he thought you were feeling like this… “ OMG, look, it is fine, I will be fine, I’ll get the jab when I get it, it’s not a big deal”. Similarly, I was irrationally cross with myself earlier, as his branch in Edinburgh had some in when I booked, and for the following couple of days, and when I had booked it with him on the phone at the same time, I through out available days and times to him, to get “Mum, I have lectures!!! I have bloody exams next week! OMG!!”… and with Saturday fully booked, he agreed on Sunday. So, yep, I beat myself up that I didn’t force a 6ft 19 year old to miss Uni to go… see…. Madness!! So, you did the best you could, so please don’t worry!

Thank you for that top tip! 🙏 I did call my branch earlier, and they hadn’t heard of a wait list, but I spoke to a couple of lovely people in the pharmacy, and they are hopefully calling me back in the morning. I absolutely get that they are dealing with all this insane demand, with zero current stock, I just think that DC who have had their appointments cancelled should be contacted first, when stocks start trickling back. Hopefully other Boots will start emulating your cool Aberdeen branch! 🤞

I don’t think it is at all, I am grateful I found that out.

I agree, it’s not spread solely by vaping and meningitis happens in countries where vapes aren’t available. Yes, vaping increases the risk but so does drinking from the same glass or bottle or nearly kissing.

There is a misconception that young people who don’t vape are protected from meningitis, but this is not true; meningitis is a serious infection that can affect anyone, especially teenagers and university students in close living environments.

Although vaping may increase susceptibility to infections, not vaping does not provide immunity, so relying on this belief could delay recognising symptoms such as fever, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, sensitivity to light, confusion, or a rash that does not fade under pressure. There isn’t always a rash.

The illness can become life-threatening very quickly, so the most important protections are awareness of symptoms and seeking urgent medical help if there is any concern.

I didn’t know that people thought that not vaping protected them from meningitis. That seems like a bizarre conclusion.

People think magically about any illness - my child is too studious to kiss girls/boys, they wouldn’t vape, they wouldn’t share a bottle of beer, they wouldn’t go into a cafè where someone might have coughed on the froth of the cappuccino, we live in rural Wales so we’re safe.

The most important thing is noticing symptoms at any age, not reassuring ourselves we’re safe.

Would meningococcal bacteria go to Aberdeen? that's the question, even single celled organisms must surely draw the line somewhere.

Agree, but people on here are acting like every single person shares vapes and drinks. I don’t know much about vaping tbf but it’s not that long ago I was a clubber and I’d never share a drink with anyone, women/ girls have it drummed into their heads not to due to spiking risks. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, the going on about vaping was just getting ridiculous. It’s spread from several different sources.

@DallasMajor please explain, I am usually a pedant and have no idea what is wrong with a waiting list.

Same, I called the Boots in my area a few days ago to ask about the vaccine as the website was closed to bookings, they were out of stock of the vaccines but they are running their own waiting list which I was added to and they will call me when they get stock in. There were 10 people on the list in front of me when I called on Wednesday

Nothing at all. It was just nice to read about waiting lists. I can't remember the last time I saw it written like that, 'wait list ' is now ubiquitous.

Well mine were done ten years ago and I never ever realised they wouldn't be covered so this is a wake up call but like everyone else we can't get the vaccine.
I also pay privately every year for us all to be flu jabbed.
It's a small price to pay for that one and obviously helps with men as well.

I don't think they are, it is a discussion forum and people are discussing how it spread.

Vapes are interesting because there is clear evidence that rates of meningitis spread dropped when indoors smoking was banned, so the possibility of vapes being part of the cause is worth discussing.

Did you watch the video? The expert mentioned vaping. As does every other expert I’ve listening to on this at the moment. It’s up there as risky behaviour. That’s why everyone is ‘going on about it’.

It’s obviously not the only way this is spread but not everyone is kissing in a nightclub. Not everyone is sharing drinks. I would argue maybe more are passing a vape around.

Rates of meningitis went down when smoking was banned inside. So vaping is contributing to this new spread. Just part of something we need to be aware about.

I’ve never seen it written as a wait list (running a wait-list as apposed to being on a waitlist) in English, mostly Americans use it.
Boots website invite you to join their ‘waiting list’ for the menB vaccine

I've never heard wait list, it's normally waiting list in the UK. Are you in the US?

The local paper today has a story about Alex Razas (uni of Kent) who thinks he contracted it on 13th March after kissing a girl in Chemistry. So the initial dates seem a little off and I suspect there will be a few more cases before we hear the end of this. Hopefully the later date means the health teams and potential patients were more aware of the disease so his contacts will have been vaccinated, but it is misleading to think it was just one event just between 6-8th.

Could be the girl was also at the club the weekend before and contracted it then, and passed it to Alex Razas the next weekend - if she was at the club both times. Or she was in close contact with someone who was at the club on the weekend of the 6th and was carrying it

So sad to hear about Juliette Kenny (18) from her family. She did her A-level PE assessment on the 12th, woke up sick on the 13th, and died on the 14th. Devastating. My heart goes out to them.

Unlikely as she was already sick on 13th and died the next day.

I don’t think Alex is saying that Juliette was the girl he kissed. Presumably she was not.

Vapes are the
obvious spreader imo

water droplets are taken into the lungs. Then breathed
out. These tiny droplets have picked up bacteria on the way from
the user who then breath out droplets into the air which are breathed in by those nearby.

to
me it’s the only thing that explains so many being affected
at
once

We have also had a fair amount of dust from North Africa over the last week, which also made me wonder if perhaps breathing that in might aggravate the airways and make infection events higher risk. I imagine the tiny particles must scratch the airways in some manner.

I agree. If you think about it - the vape goes straight in your mouth so fresh saliva from someone else. You breathe in sharply so that all goes straight to the back of the throat.

I think sharing drinks less so. Because if the bacteria only lasts for a minute or two outside the body by the time you pick up the drink it may not be an issue.

You also have the strong exhalation in a confined space with vapes. People very close together. I think it’s a key reason for the spread.