Housemate in hospital with suspected meningitis, what happens for close contacts?

[mrsconradfisher]

Please can someone calm me down, I’m usually a fairly calm and logical person when it comes to health but I’m completely freaking out.

DS1 is at Uni, living in a house with 4 friends. One of the housemates is in hospital. He has a severe headache and has been vomiting constantly for the last 48 hours. They have done a CT/MRI and doing a lumbar puncture this afternoon as they suspect it’s meningitis.
DS hasn’t had the Meningitis Vaccine as no where had it in stock. If it is meningitis, what happens? Assume it’s too late for DS to have the vaccine. Assume they will need some kind of treatment as they are in such close contact. They have exams next week too.

If it’s confirmed they will require preventative antibiotics.
This is the guidance from March 2026. I hope the housemate is ok, it must be frightening for them far from home and so poorly.
Fingers crossed it’s not meningitis and you can relax a bit. I hope your DS remains well 🤞🏻

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/meningitis-patient-factsheet/meningitis-patient-factsheet

Thank you so much. I was panicking and clearly couldn’t even find that when I was looking. I can’t imagine how they must be feeling. I almost want to tell DS to just come home but I know that’s not the right thing to do. No idea how long the lumbar puncture results take but they haven’t heard anything yet.

Your DS should ring his local surgery immediately as should his housemates. They can have preventative antibiotics.

I hope they are all ok as soon as possible.

In the meantime, book your DS for a Men B vaccine - there are stocks again. My DD19 had Men B at Boots (2 doses @ £100 each!)

Also, check whether he had the other kind when still at school (e.g. my DD19 had a Men vaccine in yr 10 or 11)

He and housemates all need Rifampicin and hopefully today. On the phone to local surgery or pharmacy for advice.
Makes your urine an entertaining orange/red colour

Yes he definitely had the other one when still at school.

He isn’t registered at a local GP surgery only the one at home. He is never ill, has only been to GP once in the last 5 years so it seemed a bit pointless to change. Still no results on lumbar puncture so assume they won’t prescribe anything without confirmation it is actually Meningitis.
Ahh that’s good news about the vaccine, he has booked so many appointments with various clinics over the last couple of months and they all get cancelled. He’s in an area where there are several Uni’s within a relatively small area so I wonder if that’s contributing to the shortage of vaccines there.

Even if he's not registered at a GP there, he should contact the nearest one and let them know. I'm sure they can manage to register him. (DD didn't register at hers; it's too far to stagger if she's really ill anyways)

If the local GP can't help he should contact the hospital where his housemate is (all best wishes for him!) and let them know.

Just following up on this, it is definitely confirmed Meningitis B. DS and all the other housemates went to Urgent Care last night and were given the 1 antibiotic tablet they needed to take. I’d been quite calm since we found out yesterday morning until i googled the possible side effects of the antibiotic and completely freaked out. It’s Ciprofloxacin…
Anyway he took it and all is ok so far. My question is what should he do about the vaccine? My gut feeling is to try and find somewhere this week to get it done but I’m not sure whether exposure, plus this incredibly potent antibiotic plus a vaccine would be too much for his immune system?

Oh and they asked for Rifampacin and were told they had to have the other one…if I’d have been there I’d have insisted on the one the poster suggested as much less side effects.

Rifampicin’s not a particularly nice drug either & cipro’s the first line treatment. There are no great options in this scenario.

Thank you, that’s good to know. I’d read that they were trying to stop Cipro from being prescribed due to the possible side effects (and I’m not talking the usual sickness etc) so was worried and thought the other one was better. But that’s really helpful to know that the one they were given is the first line of treatment.

One dose of cipro is unlikely to cause any side effects, I’d actual prefer it to rifampicin personally!

Hope your DS stays well and his friend recovers fully.

Thank you, can I ask why in particular? It makes no odds now as they have all taken it but it was the risk of damage to tendons I was most concerned about. DS’s whole life and future career is sport and social media is full of story’s of people taking it and losing the ability to walk so I was imagining the worst. Genuinely don’t know what’s come over me the last few days, I’m so anxious about it and I’m usually pretty laid back about health issues. Think it’s probably the realisation of how serious it is and the fact that he’s hundreds of miles away and I can't physically see that he’s ok.

Side effects from cipro are much more likely to occur if having it as a course over multiple days/weeks.