Should we be worried about meningitis outbreak?

[LittleRed34]

Should we be worried about the current meningitis outbreak?? I don't know if it's fake news, but I saw somewhere that there would be talks of a lockdown, and jab roll out...COVID 2.0??

The media are whipping it up into a frenzy. We are not going to go into lock down. It’s a bacteria who know how to treat and can be vaccinated against.

Vaccination does not stop anyone getting meningitis or spreading it, but it can prevent fatal meningococcal sepsis.

🙄

No not about there being a lockdown. UKHSA are well experienced in managing infectious disease outbreaks, it’s what they do every day.

A private vaccine gives strong protection. It does not make anyone immune to meningitis, and it does not stop someone from carrying or passing on the bacteria. The same with Covid vaccines, everyone is at some level of risk. The most important thing for everyone is to know the symptoms and call 999 if they or their child has them. Please don’t be the person who doesn’t call 999 because your child is vaccinated so they will be fine.

There will be no national lockdown and if there is an injection drive for those most at risk, good.

IT IS NOT A VIRUS!

Men B is cause by a bacteria.

This is why antibiotics work.

Antibiotics NEVER work against a virus.

Antibiotics kill a bacteria.

Because viruses replicate inside cells, antibiotics can't get to them, and even if they could, antibiotics can't kill viruses, as viruses aren't really and truly alive.

Viruses hijack cells and turn them into viruses making factories.

Bacteria are living cells in their own right.

You aren't being completely accurate.

Various vaccines make it basically impossible for you to spread it, they cause sterilising immunity. You do not get infected to any real degree, and you can't pass it on.

Others do what you say and reduce the symptoms and keep you more safe, while still catching it. And although you can still pass it on, the viral/bacterial loads are reduced, the symptomatic period this has any chance of happening in is reduced, and the symptoms are reduced for that reduced load to potentially be spread by.

There are various different levels of effects from the different meningitis vaccines. Some of them basically stop the spread entirely. But some don't.

I’m OK with being over the top. I only survived sepsis in my 30s by being vigilant about symptoms and not going to bed thinking I’d see how I felt after a night’s sleep. I was in hospital on IV antibiotics by 5 am. A family member had meningococcal sepsis age 18, not at uni, and was only saved by a parent who acted quickly. I don’t want anyone to think they’re immune.

I didn't know we could shout on here. This is a good development.

But to do it by not being accurate, and being misleading about what all vaccines are as a whole, is not a good thing. That is what I was referring to, although I did remove it before you commented because I thought it could be misinterpreted when I read it back.

I’m so sorry to hear this.

Different illness, but my sister nearly died from chicken pox and ended up in a wheelchair. Did I feel bad or care if someone judged me for having my daughter privately vaccinated against chicken pox? Absolutely not! What matters is that she is safe, as are your children because you took the proper course of action. You don’t need to justify yourself to anyone; especially on here where some posters will do anything to stick the boot into someone.

I think I meant to reply to @unistress - this particular vaccine doesn’t make anyone completely safe.

When infants are given three doses of the Men B vaccine, they think it only provides 36 months of protection. So potentially your children may not be protected anymore. If they’re at uni maybe they should have another dose.

I got my daughter vaccinated privately before she started uni 3 years ago. We just had to go to Superdrug at it cost £110 per jab. Everybody I spoke to at the time said oh no we don't need it they were vaccinated at 15 - erm no they weren't! Some people were told by their GPs that they were already vaccinated against all meningitis.

I replied to the right person. It was just the way I read it if this is not what you meant, but you started talking about the meningitis vaccine, then continued with the Covid example and the general message this seemed to give was you were talking about vaccines in general at that point (although Covid does work like that, you didn't counter it by saying this was different, it's just how I read it overall).

No problem holding my hands up and admitting I was wrong about what you meant though if that was wrong.

Meningitis b is caused by a bacteria.

I think with the Easter holidays approaching for universities and kids going home we will see it spread to other areas of the country unfortunately. Then it may be passed on to siblings. While this is nothing like Covid I don’t think we are out of the woods yet.

It will probably have the opposite effect. Parents and students would be wise to be vigilant and maybe self isolate for a few days. But it’s the behaviour and living conditions that are the problem.

DS has been struggling to get rid of scabies for the last 6 months. We are clear of it at home but DS keeps getting re infected at uni. Hopefully, over Easter he can finally rid himself off the dreaded mites.

Like men b you need prolonged close contact to pass them on. He is treating himself again this week after spending a night in a discount hotel in Liverpool while celebrating St Patrick’s. He’s an expert now and didn’t need reminding. He initially picked it up while staying in a hostel in Prague. He’s now obsessive about clean bedding and he probably has the cleanest smelling male student bed at uni. To be fair he has always changed his sheets weekly since mid teens.

Apparently it’s on the advice of a skin specialist online who claims it helps reduce outbreaks of teenage spots. Personally I think it’s probably an urban myth spread by a desperate parent who was fed up of the teenage boy bed smell.

@Crwysmam @nevernotmaybe
It is airborne. The WHO documents say so.
Interestingly though, the page with this information on the WHO website was live until yesterday, when it was removed. But, you can still find the archived version.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260127011255/www.who.int/teams/health-product-policy-and-standards/standards-and-specifications/norms-and-standards/vaccine-standardization/meningococcal-meningitis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20260127011255/www.who.int/teams/health-product-policy-and-standards/standards-and-specifications/norms-and-standards/vaccine-standardization/meningococcal-meningitis

This is very reminiscent of the WHO press conference about COVID in 2020 where Tedros said 'it's spread by aerosols', then was handed a note by Mike Ryan, and Tedros corrected himself and said it's NOT airborne. But what do you know, we definitely know 100% that COVID is airborne. How many lives could have been saved if that 'correction' hadn't been made? Incidentally the WHO offices all had a ventilation upgrade while we were in lockdown, so they obviously knew that ventilation matters.

The wise thing to do is if you wear a mask, wear one that will protect you against aerosols AND droplets, so a N95.

Add to that the aversion to simply having fresh air and opening windows occasionally.

Oh look!
Even the North Ireland PHA used to say that Meningococcal disease is spread by aerosols, but today their website no longer says so!
Screen grab from Dec 2025:

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20251207184040/www.publichealth.hscni.net/directorate-public-health/health-protection/meningococcal-disease" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Meningococcal disease | HSC Public Health Agency

And today: Meningococcal disease | HSC Public Health Agency

And all this the same week as the covid inquiry concludes that covid is actually airborne and so many infections could have been avoided if for examples schools had been told this early on and they could have focused on ventilation.

(edit to add the screen shot)

Yes I’m very worried about my daughter at uni and trying to get the vaccine for both daughters.

For some reason the screen shot won't show. One more attempt

sorry @Realitycheck1 I didn't meant to quote you, but yes open windows are very important!