AIBU to get COVID flashbacks from the Meningitis Outbreak

[LawlessLeslie]

The students who think they have been in contact with the virus are queuing up for antibiotics. Those interviewed on the news, are saying once they have the medication they will be heading home.
So thousands of people in contact with something that has killed plan to move across the country.
I don’t expect the government to enforce lock down on anyone but it doesn’t seem like an ideal situation for the rest of the country.

Why on earth would there be lockdowns what a random thought to have. It is extremely sad for those involved, but Meningitis outbreaks are hardly unheard of.

What an odd thread.

If I thought I had come in contact with something serious enough to need antibiotics I would go straight home and rest up, not hop on a train full of potentially vulnerable people.

Meningitis and Covid are very different beasts. Meningitis is relatively hard to transmit. It is not airborne in the same way. You can get it from kissing or if someone coughs directly on you but it is not literally floating around in the air that you are breathing and therefore unavoidable. Also, it is not a novel disease as Covid was. We know which antibiotics and treatments work for it. The viral forms are much less serious than the bacterial form. Students have been given antibiotics as a known, sensible preventative measure.

I went to another uni 30 years ago with a similar outbreak...you get the antibiotics and it was contained in my uni case. It is not covid!

Oh God please no! No mnet Covid level hysteria with talk. Of rounding up the infected and isolating them!
the posts before of “AIBU to lock my 8 yo in her room for 12 days as she coughed at breakfast”… that thread haunts me still of the poster who would only allow her child out of the room for toilet breaks at specific times…. I still hope it was a troll.

We locked down for Covid because we didn’t know what it was or how it was spread, and being novel, we hade no immune defences or vaccines against it. It was highly transmissible and we had no protection. Meningitis outbreaks have been going on since the 70s and we understand how much harder than Covid it is to pass on, we have good vaccines and can take established measures to make sure outbreaks among young people living (sometimes a bit too) closely together can be managed. Dispersing them is a good idea. Don’t snog a teenage stranger on a train and you’ll be grand.

Is it highly transmittable?

My dd is 6, and had the mmr vaccines, is she at risk? x

So why are they going home then, rather than staying put and studying?

So they don’t keep passing it around among themselves. Lots of teens in small rooms, shared bathrooms which aren’t cleaned often enough, never opening the windows, sharing drinks and not being very good at doing the washing up, snogging lots of new people - it’s the same as glandular fever, spreads easily among students due to living in close quarters and being intimate with each other and not too fussy about hygiene.

Aren’t most of the cases linked back to a nightclub where there was a lot of kissing/sharing vapes/people in close proximity? Meningitis spreads in that kind of environment or where people are living in close proximity. I don’t think there’s a wider risk to the public.

Its almost Easter break.
The university has stopped face to face learning and exams
They want to see family
Many reasons. If I had a child at the uni I would rather they were home taking antibiotics and then if they did become ill I could keep an eye on them rather than being on their own ill and worried

She's been vaccinated for measles mumps and rubella

OP, you need to educate yourself on Meningitis before scaremongering.

I'm being dense i know 🙈

I j

I should have also said not to worry. Just read up on the symptoms so you know as its good to know but despite what the op is trying to frighten you with it isnt like covid.
Meningitis spreads quickly in university students because they live together and lots of kissing and sharing etc.
Different lifestyle to a 6 year old! 😁

If up to date on childhood vaccinations a 6 year old will have been vaccinated against meningitis b which accounts for roughly 88% of cases. They haven’t yet disclosed which type of meningitis it is though.

No scaremongering OP. People will be out panic buying pasta and bog roll again if we’re not careful.

Posted too soon. I just think it’s really sad but as a parent of kids the same age living away from home (and frankly all their dubious habits) I do think it’s worrying. The natural urge would be to want them to come home where we can keep an eye on them. Lots of students will be travelling home for Easter anyway. It’s worrying enough generally knowing that they’re out clubbing and may come home alone stupidly drunk or even spiked and this adds a whole dimension of fear I think. The concern being that the deterioration is fast and could be dismissed as a hangover or whatever.They’re not the most cautious age as it is. I really feel for parents with kids in the area, but yes, it will be difficult to contain for sure.News reports seem to indicate men c, which not many will be vaccinated against, but reports don’t seem definite yet ?

Unless she has been mixing very closely with undergrads etc who have been exposed to infection, almost certainly no.
Meningitis is an entirely different illness to the mmr vaccine targets. However as someone upthread has said she ought to also have had Menb vax too as part of usual regime. Check her health record and find out.

*Wait until someone posts about putting cheese in their coffee because they're out of milk!

*Before some know it all pipes up, yes I know it was a joke that got snowballed and not a serious suggestion.

Cardiff? I remember. Was a scary time

Ear infections, chest infections, teeth infections , bites etc. they all need antibiotics. Needing antibiotics doesn’t quantify the seriousness of the situation.