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

Sorry just seen the update. I’m glad the housemate’s Mum is on the way.

I guess all you can do is keep an eye on your DD. Are they giving preventative antibiotics to everyone who is a close contact or just those that are ill?

But she isnt a close contact?
And 111 wouldnt be the people to help in that situation.
Ukhsa will be contacting those in close contact of people with meningitis
We dont know if the house mate has that just they are poorly.

I think this is what people don’t know. Men B vaccine has to be paid for! Just priced and it is around £105 a dose and you need 2. Met a Mother at a meningitis Uk stand when we brought our child to halls and she explained how her daughter had the normal vaccines and but got really ill as no Men B vaccine. 🙈

Yes, my dc are 14 and 12. I paid for them to have it around 2016/17 with Boots. At the time it was £100 an injection. They had to have x2 each.

Adults now have not been vaccinated against Men B as a child. They have been vaccinated against Men C.

The vaccine came in in around 2015 and was added to the childhood vaccination programme. We were the first country to do.so

Those born before the start date will not have the Men B vaccine unless they paid for it.

My 2006, 2007, and 2011 children had the vaccine in 2017 and I paid about £200 each in Boots.

This brings back memories. I had Meningitis B as a teenager and it was brutal. I was off school for weeks. I also remember the doctor coming to my house. I can still remember the hallucinations I had.

Well exactly - she could just been unwell

DD said she was “just poorly” but couldn’t really specify poorly with what

There will be kids who are poorly but not with meningitis obviously. Hoping very she was one of them

Apparently there was a huge social last weekend which seems to have been the super spreader event - DD didn’t go and neither did her housemate but they have friends who did

It seems likely our children might have missed the vaccination. My daughter who is at university got a message from nhs a few weeks ago to get the vaccine. We were certain we are upto date on vaccinations. We checked to find she didn’t have it and she was meant to get it in Covid times.

One of my friends daughters is there. If they’ve had contact with anyone who has it they need antibiotics. Call the doctors.

My son had meningitis as a toddler. We caught it early and he’s ok, however, I wanted to flag that the rash can look very normal at the start.

I misinterpreted it as a grass rash as he had been in the garden, it was a pin prick rash that just looked like an allergy. Tellingly, it didn’t go away under the glass tumbler when the GP checked it. He also had the aversion to light and projectile vomited everywhere. We were given antibiotics at the GP and rushed to hospital. The hospital later explained that the blotchy deep rash is found later.

i just wanted to highlight that the rash can look innocuous to begin with.

My brother contracted Men B many years ago and was seriously ill. We were all given antibiotics.

This is an incredibly entitled viewpoint. When I was at uni my mum was dead and I didn't see my dad who lived abroad. I'm not sure I'd have got through if it wasn't for the compassion of my friends and, indeed, their parents.

Not sure if anyone has already said this but when we had our meningitis awareness training we were told very clearly that if you were having any 3 of the symptoms to seek medical attention (not just the rash or light sensitivity, which may or may not occur). They also said that you need to very vocally say you are concerned about meningitis as nice guidelines say that you should be assessed by a senior clinician and receive iv antibiotics within 1 hour if meningitis is suspected. “She’d know it by now” is a terrible response from 111 and I would not be happy about that at all. Just a week after we had this training my husband who was in his early 20s at the time thought he was coming down with a nasty bout of flu. He had to be driven home by a colleague (a 3 hour drive) because he became so unwell, delirious with a raging temperature over 40. By the time he was brought home he was incapable of “knowing” or deciding himself he needed medical attention.

MenB came in in 2015. My son's baby friend sadly contracted it just before the vaccine came in. I got both my children both privately as a result, but even if a young person has been vaccinated, it only lasts about 5 years, so students wouldn't be protect. I plan to get my children a private booster when they're about 17. So sorry for anyone going through this it is truly awful.

@CorporealCarrot agree people have different circumstances and the other girl may have gone down hill very fast and not been able to get in touch or not near phone battery died.i
I've been so ill before I've struggled to do basic things.

@CorporealCarrot a booster ?

Surely the two jabs is enough ??

I was a trainee teacher from 1997 to 2000 and my cohort were given some kind of meningitis jab.

No idea which but my friend contracted meningitis and I was one of the only people allowed in to see her.

Wonder if trainees are still offered the jab?

No, it lasts about 5 years

Two dead and 11 in hospital?? That's terrible!

OP, I'd keep her home if she gets sick or not. Sounds like a really nasty strain. Send her back after the Easter break, assuming they've fumigated the place by then. Eleven in hospital and two dead is really serious.

My DD went unI in 2019 and had a meningitis vaccine before she went.

You need to do your utmost to get the housemate checked either by the university or the local police. If you have contact information for the housemate's parents, please call them.

Part of the reason meningitis is so deadly is that when it hits, the victim wants to curl up in a dark place and be left alone, away from light and noise. You can completely rule out a scenario where the housemate will seek help for herself, therefore.

@mathanxiety like a migraine .

Is anyone else freaking out about the fact that they've not got the men B vaccine themselves? My kids have had it (one privately in 2015) but aren't parents just as vulnerable? Or not?

This ^^
no messing about, it’s very serious.

No, the illness makes you want to curl up in a dark room and shut out light and sound.

This is why it is so deadly - victims' brains stop working, basically.