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

University students are particularly vulnerable since they live and socialise in large groups

@ChiliFiend good point , surely they can bring it home ?

Its not that infectious, nothing like colds and flu - so unless she or her friend have been in prolonged close proximity to someone who is infected they probably just have a general bug.

She might have had the vaccine when she started uni? Im sure I had mine during freshers week

Yes, but it is not a conscious choice to hole yourself away. The brain cannot work properly when the meningeal layer is inflamed.

Yes my DS was the same I checked his vaccine schedule with the school and the surgery. The surgery gave him a shot before he went to university. He's gone back to do his masters, he's 25 now and doesn't live in, the fact that it's only effective for five years is worrying though.

You didn’t have meningitis B vaccination unless you paid for it.

this is scary

Anyone with any symptoms needs to be checked.

Complacency is not good advice.

That will be Men C though, not Men B. the only way to get that in the UK for teens is to pay privately for it.

There's different meningitis vaccines, I also got a meningitis vaccine when I started uni many, many years ago now (as there'd been an outbreak) but it wasn't meningitis B. I don't really undertand why as Men B seems particularly nasty - I guess it's either because it's rare or because the vaccine is expensive.

That is like to have been acwy not Meningitis B. Meningitis B isn’t available on the nhs other than to young children. He might still need ti get Men B separately from boots/superdrug

@mathanxiety I feel like that with a migraine I can't do anything else

@justasking111 which one ? Apparnty b isn't free

I don't know, we're in Wales so do a few things differently. It's seven years ago now as well.

1st victim is a uni student, 2nd victim is a sixth form pupil from the local grammar school.

the poor family and friends

Well quite, but JCVI so…

Although it is more complicated in that Men B is most common affects under 4s while ACWY mostly affects teens. Which presumably explains why the vaccines are given at the age they are. There is a second peak for Men B in teens although it is rare so it would seem to make sense to give one then given that both a Men B and a Men ABCWY vaccine exists.

My 40 year old strapping healthy son had it. God it's a frightening illness.

It’s so horrible. A year 11 child from my DCs school caught it and died a couple of years ago. There really needs to be more publicity about the fact that you have to arrange and pay for men b yourself.

I know it isn’t confirmed that it’s men B but given that they are vaccinated against acwy in the school programme then it’s likely to have been B

Terrifying, and tragic.

I got my son the Men B vaccines the summer before he went to uni, wouldnt have occurred to me to do it in sixth form. His sibling is in sixth form and I did them at the same time, i now rememebr, but may have to do a booster as the 5 years will be up while he is at uni.

They really need to make it clear to people that they need to pay for a Men B vaccine before their kids go into uni halls or even in sixth form.

I might have misunderstood, but according to my reading of the government website the Meningitis B vaccine only offers protection for up to three years, as the vast majority of cases are in young children, so I am not sure if children who were vaccinated at 12 weeks of age in 2015 will have any immunity when they get to University age anyway.

I am sure your daughter will be fine, but it must be such a relief to have her home where you can keep an eye on her rather than worrying about her at uni.

Yes it's not clear at all and so many different types !
They need to stress each different one and that men b is paid for and have posters up everywhere bloody confusing just look at the confusion on here

Both my husband and step daughter contracted meningitis late last year within days of each other- there are two types of meningitis, bacterial and viral. Thankfully they both contracted the viral strain which remains in your body forever but is less severe than the bacterial strand. My step daughter had sepsis so she was really ill. The one thing I was completely surprised about was the rash. It wasn’t the classic red pimples under a glass. It was soft and mottled (probably sepsis related). Light aversion and a piercing headache at the front of the head were also symptoms. They came on quickly almost instant there was no build up. My step daughter was blue lighted and my husband was advised to go straight to a and e.

Hope these symptoms help.

I guess the other strains are routinely vaccinated against so would only crop up in the unvaccinated. I don't know why men B isnt on the NHS for older teens though!

My friend passed away from meningitis a few years ago - he was healthy, in his early 20s and it developed terrifyingly fast. If there’s any possibility someone you know might have this, don’t let it go too late without checking on them / getting immediate emergency attention